2024-05-11 15:26

MOSCOW, May 11 (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil processing, petrochemical and fertiliser complex located in the Bashkortostan region has stopped its catalytic cracker after being attacked by a drone on 9 May, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The catalytic cracker is part of gasoline production chain responsible for 600,000 tons of output of this product at Salavat which in total is capable of producing about 1.5 million tons of gasoline in a year. "A building with a pumping room for the catalytic cracker was hit. The cracker unit itself stayed secure so nothing is critical. Going to fix it in one to one and a half weeks", a source said on condition of anonymitiy as he was not authorused to talk to media. Salavat's press-service declined to comment. Radiy Khabirov, the region's head, said on his Telegram channel on Thursday the plant was functioning as usual. The state RIA news agency, citing emergency services, said the drone attack had damaged a pumping station building at the plant, but that nobody had been injured. Salavat complex refinery runs was 6,498 million tons in 2023 - 2,36% of overall oil processing in Russia. Ukraine has stepped up its drone attacks on oil processing facilities in Russia since the start of the year. Moscow says the attacks amount to terrorism and has launched what it said are revenge strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure in response. Ukraine says the oil facilities are legitimate targets which aid Russia's military effort. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/oil-plant-russias-bashkortostan-stopped-its-cat-cracker-after-drone-attack-9-may-2024-05-11/

2024-05-11 14:32

TORONTO, May 11 (Reuters) - An evacuation alert has been issued for Fort McMurray, Alberta, as an out-of-control fire rages southwest of the major Canadian oil town, making it among the first actions ahead of the wildfire season. In a notice late on Friday, the Alberta government said the wildfire danger is "extreme" in the Fort McMurray Forest Area and out of control at 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) in size. It said strong winds are expected on Saturday, as a cold front continues to pass over the region. Helicopter pilots using night vision equipment surveilled the wildfire area overnight. In 2016, a huge wildfire in Fort McMurray forced the evacuation of 90,000 residents and shut in more than a million barrels per day of oil output. Residents in Saprea Creek Estates are also placed on alert from the municipality of Wood Buffalo. In British Columbia, the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality issued an evacuation order for the town of Fort Nelson. The federal government has warned Canada faces another "catastrophic" wildfire season as it forecasted higher-than-normal spring and summer temperatures across much of the country, boosted by El Nino weather conditions. Meeting with fire chiefs in West Kelowna, one of several B.C. communities that were forced to evacuate thousands of people last summer, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday that it was likely to be "a very bad forest fire season." "People are worried about what the summer might bring. People are worried what the future might hold," he said. Last year Canada endured its worst-ever fire season, with more than 6,600 blazes burning 15 million hectares, an area roughly seven times the annual average. Eight firefighters died and 230,000 people were evacuated from their homes. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/wildfire-evacuation-notice-issued-alberta-town-fort-mcmurray-2024-05-11/

2024-05-11 13:18

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 11 (Reuters) - The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state has climbed to 136, the local civil defense government body said on Saturday, up from 126 in the previous day, while another 125 people remain unaccounted for. Storms and floods battering the South American country's southernmost state have also left around 537,000 displaced, according to the local civil defense body, a significant increase over the 340,000 reported a day earlier. About 446 urban centers have been impacted, affecting the lives of more than 2.1 million people in a state whose population is about 10.9 million. Weather forecaster Metsul has reported that after a short respite, rains coming down over the state on Friday have begun to fill rivers in what it called a "worrying" situation. "Accumulated precipitation is occurring in the worst possible region given the current flood scenario, along the basins and in the sources of the main rivers that are still full," said the meteorological service in a public statement. The state is at a geographical meeting point between tropical and polar atmospheres, which has created a weather pattern with periods of intense rains or drought. Local scientists believe the pattern has been intensifying due to climate change. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/death-toll-floods-brazils-south-climbs-136-2024-05-11/

2024-05-11 11:24

SHEIKH JALAL, Afghanistan, May 11 (Reuters) - The official death toll from devastating flash floods in northern Afghanistan has risen to 153 people across three provinces, the Taliban's interior ministry said on Saturday, while the World Food Progamme said it was double that. The WFP, which operates throughout Afghanistan, said on X that floods had killed more than 300 people. It did not give a source for its figure. When asked about the WFP figure, a ministry spokesperson said its figure was still 153 - but the authorities have said the death toll could rise. At least 138 people have also been injured in the flooding across northern Baghlan, Takhar and Badakhshan, caused by heavy rains on Friday, the ministry spokesman, Abdul Mateen Qaniee, said. In Karkar village in Baghlan province, residents held funerals for people who had been killed by the floods. "I lost five members of my family - two sons, two daughters, and their mother in a result of this devastating flash flood," said Gulbudeen, a mourner who provided only one name. "We were standing on the other side of the flood, but we could not help them, and eventually the flood took the lives of our loved ones." Taliban authorities sent helicopters to try to assist civilians overnight after receiving reports that over 100 people were stranded. Many people had been left homeless and transportation, water and waste systems were "severely disrupted", the World Health Organisation said. "The impact has been profound, leading to loss of life and injuries, with many individuals still unaccounted for," the WHO's Afghanistan office said in a statement late on Friday. It added that four health centres had been damaged and one destroyed by the floods and said the agency was sending health teams to provide treatment in the inundated areas. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/death-toll-afghanistan-floods-rises-151-says-taliban-interior-ministry-2024-05-11/

2024-05-11 10:42

BAGHDAD, May 11 (Reuters) - Chinese companies won bids to explore five Iraqi oil and gas fields on Saturday in a licensing round for hydrocarbon exploration that was primarily aimed at ramping up gas production for domestic use. An Iraqi Kurdish company also took two of the 29 projects up for grabs in the three-day licensing round across central, southern and western Iraq, which for the first time includes an offshore exploration block in the country's Arab Gulf waters. Iraq aims to lure billions of dollars of investments to develop its oil and gas sector as it looks to ramp up local petrochemicals production and end imports of gas from neighbouring Iran that are currently key to producing power. More than 20 companies pre-qualified for the licensing round, including European, Chinese, Arab and Iraqi groups. There were notably no U.S. oil majors involved, even after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia met with representatives of U.S. oil firms during an official visit to the United States last month. Five bids were won on Saturday by Chinese companies. Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas Group (ZPEC) (603619.SS) New Tab, opens new tab took the northern extension of the Eastern Baghdad field, in Baghdad, and the Middle Euphrates field that straddles the southern Najaf and Karbala provinces, the oil ministry said. China's United Energy Group Ltd won a bid to develop the Al-Faw field in southern Basra, while ZhenHua won a bid to develop Iraq's Qurnain field in the Iraqi-Saudi border region and Geo-Jade won a bid to develop Iraq's Zurbatiya field in the Wasit. Two oil and gas fields were taken by Iraq's KAR Group - the Dimah field in eastern Maysan province, and the Sasan & Alan fields in Iraq's northwestern Nineveh province - the ministry said. Around 20 more projects are open for bidding on Sunday and Monday. Falah Al-amri, the Iraqi prime minister's advisor for oil and gas issues, said the government hoped the new projects would raise oil production to 6 million barrels per day by 2030 from around 5 million now. The government also wants the projects to produce enough natural gas so that, along with plans to all-but eliminate gas flaring by 2030, Iraq could end imports. "Its too early to talk about (gas) exports. We want to get self-sufficient," Al-amri told Reuters. Iraq, OPEC's second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia, at one time had targeted becoming a rival to the Gulf Arab kingdom with output of over a tenth of global demand. But its oil sector development has been hampered by contract terms viewed as unfavourable by many major oil companies as well as recurring conflict and political paralysis. Growing investor focus in recent years on environmental, social and governance criteria have also had an effect. Western oil giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have departed from a number of projects in Iraq while Chinese companies have steadily expanded their footprint. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/iraq-launches-oil-gas-licensing-round-29-projects-2024-05-11/

2024-05-11 08:53

May 11 (Reuters) - Starlink, the satellite arm of Elon Musk's SpaceX, warned on Saturday of a "degraded service" as the Earth is battered by the biggest geomagnetic storm due to solar activity in two decades. Starlink owns around 60% of the roughly 7,500 satellites orbiting Earth and is a dominant player in satellite internet. Musk said earlier in a post on X that Starlink satellites were under a lot of pressure due to the geomagnetic storm, but were holding up so far. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said the storm is the biggest since October 2003 and likely to persist over the weekend, posing risks to navigation systems, power grids, and satellite navigation, among other services. The thousands of Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit use inter-satellite laser links to pass data between one another in space at the speed of light, allowing the network to offer internet coverage around the world. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/starlink-experiencing-degraded-service-musk-says-satellites-under-pressure-2024-05-11/