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SINGAPORE (AP) - Oil prices fell in Asian trading Tuesday after losing nearly US$2 a barrel in the previous session amid easing concerns about the possibility of more production cuts by OPEC members. The contract dropped 3 per cent overnight in New York as traders discounted threats of output cuts and focused on high U.S. oil product inventories. Despite reduced refinery runs, traders were expecting to see a build in U.S. gasoline and distillate stocks in weekly petroleum supply data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Energy. Light, sweet crude for November delivery dropped 11 cents to US$60.92 a...

Next time you stop at the pump and pay through-the-stratosphere prices to fill your car's tank, just ponder this: We are not — repeat, we are not running out of oil. There is no good reason you should be paying through the nose. There are only bad reasons for it. If you are also angry about illegal aliens pouring over the border, you should know that illegal immigration is the price we are paying to keep to keep gas prices from going even higher, maybe two or three times higher.

Enron and Today's Oil and Gas Prices August 9th, 2006 If a Senate study concluded that legislation signed by George W. Bush and supported by Halliburton was partially responsible for todayÂ’s high oil and gas prices, do you think you would have heard about it?Well, such a report was released by the Senate. However, the president that signed the law in question was William Jefferson Clinton, and the company that strongly lobbied for its passage was Enron. Yet, mysteriously, this study was almost completely ignored.On June 26, Senators Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota) and Carl Levin (D-Michigan) released a comprehensive report detailing...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israel and Hezbollah fought bloody ground battles and exchanged fierce air and missile strikes Friday — including bombing raids that severed Lebanon's last major supply link with Syria and the outside world, and the guerrillas' deepest rocket attack inside Israel to date. Loud explosions resounded in Beirut early Saturday as Israeli warplanes renewed their onslaught, carrying out several strikes on southern suburbs, local media said. Israeli helicopters, meanwhile, attacked suspected Hezbollah positions in the southern city of Tyre, according to residents. After days of desultory diplomacy, Washington said it was near agreement with France on a U.N....

Time to Remove Barriers to Boosting Oil Refining Capacity by Ben LiebermanPosted Jul 27, 2006The high price of oil is the main reason that the price of gasoline has nearly doubled over the last three years, but it is not the only reason. The cost of turning oil into gasoline has also risen, thanks in part to costly federal regulations on refinery operations and expansions. Many in Congress are aware of this problem, and the House recently passed the Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act (H.R. 5254) to address it. This very modest measure would streamline refinery-related regulations and would be...

U.S. Army Capt. Demechel Robinson Supply Officer Enjoys Helping People By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Nikki Prodromos 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment TIKRIT, Iraq, July 25, 2006 -- U.S. Army Capt. Demechel Robinson likes helping people. From her job as the assistant S-4 of Operations, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division to her involvement in many charitable organizations, she spends most of her time giving something back. Robinson helps bring the 3rd Brigade Combat Team troops on the ground their medical supplies, water, food, ammunition, and other necessities by providing an accurate and continuous picture of the brigadeÂ’s...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil surged to a record high near $76 on Thursday on renewed worries over supply from major exporter Nigeria and as conflict between Israel and Hizbollah in Lebanon heightened international tensions. Prices also rose as the Iran nuclear row appeared to be heading to the U.N. Security Council, North Korea walked out of talks with South Korea and crude inventories in top oil consumer the United States fell more than expected. "Geopolitical risk is out of control," said Tony Nunan, a risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp. "There's a pipeline attack in Nigeria, Israel is taking a strong...

SINGAPORE - Crude oil prices retreated Monday as traders took profits following recent gains and amid easing worries about Iran's nuclear dispute after the country's top nuclear negotiator expressed optimism that the standoff can be resolved peacefully. Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell 37 cents to $73.72 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drop came after oil prices had climbed for most of the last two weeks, reaching an intraday record of $75.78 a barrel on Friday before settling back at $74.09. The Brent crude contract for August fell 27 cents to...

AL ASAD, Iraq (July 7, 2006) -- Marines at the Al Asad Ammunition Supply Point came together for a brief banquet laced with ceremony and laughs, staying in tune with Marine Corps tradition. The ASP Marines with Headquarters and Service Company, Combat Logistics Battalion 7, 1st Marine Logistics Group, conducted a field mess night at Al Asad July 1 to honor and recognize the Marines who came before them, as well as to build on to their own camaraderie. "We came over here 24 strong, and we do a lot of things together," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brian G....

Freely excerpting: "The real truth is that we don't know enough to relieve global warming, and -- barring major technological breakthroughs -- we can't do much about it. This was obvious nine years ago; it's still obvious." ... "Having postulated a crash energy diet, the IEA [International Energy Agency] simulates five scenarios with differing rates of technological change. In each, greenhouse emissions in 2050 are higher than today. The increases vary from 6 percent to 27 percent." ... "No government will adopt the draconian restrictions on economic growth and personal freedom (limits on electricity usage, driving and travel) that might...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Just two Arab countries have supplied almost 50 percent of California's imported oil over the past five years, a dependence that leaves the state more vulnerable than the rest of the country to disruptions in the world oil markets. The finding, based on an analysis of state and federal crude oil import statistics, underscores the challenges confronting both California -- the biggest gas-consuming state in the U.S. -- and the country as a whole as lawmakers grapple with consumer outrage over high prices at the pump and a U.S. deficit that has widened on the back...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil fell almost 1 percent to below $70 a barrel on Tuesday, pausing to watch the season's first Atlantic storm as it weakened along a route that will take it well clear of U.S. energy installations. Iran's reluctance to give up its atomic program, unrelenting violence in Iraq and strong demand signals from China all lent the market support, keeping prices up 15 percent this year and within sight of their record high of $75.35. U.S. light sweet crude for July fell 69 cents to $69.67 a barrel by 0746 GMT, extending Monday's $1.27 slump. London Brent...

U.S. Army Cpl. Ryan Lugenbill, an ammunition storage specialist with the 592nd Ordnance Detachment, helps U.S. Army Spc. Kevin Lundby and Sgt. Donald Wright unload ammunition from a container, May 8, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Spencer Case Montana Reservists Man Ammo Supply Point The unit collects ammunition from outgoing units and redistribute it to other units for training or combat missions. By U.S. Army Spc. Spencer Case CAMP ADDER, Iraq, June 12, 2006 — Behind the front lines of Iraq, the U.S. soldiers of 1st Platoon, 592nd Ordnance Company are “sustaining the line” by making sure units...

With so many adult students, opinions are flying everywhere on how they might be served best and what is needed most. Gary Berg, author of Lessons From the Edge, offers up these four main pressures: 1. Diminishing financial support 2. The call to serve adult learners and first-generation college students 3. A need to balance liberal-arts and applied curricula 4. A subsequent necessity of maintaing an evolving institutional mission. Fopros are in a position to address these pressures. Like them or love them, many experts credit the University of Phoenix with being the most innovative of the higher-education bunch. UoP...

India is by far the largest outsourcing market with a predicted 169,000 offshore call center staff by 2010-- nearly double the present number of 95,000. But call centers in Eastern Europe are expected to triple in that same amount of time from 3,700 to more than 10,000. Growth in North Africa is also expected to triple from 7,800 to over 23,000-- mostly driven by Egypt. The major concerns are the high turnover rate in India and the instability in the latter players. Still, India has to be looking west, AND while doing so, looking back over its shoulder at China....

SINGAPORE -- Oil prices jumped Monday in reaction to a threat by Iran's supreme leader that his nation could jeopardize the world's oil supply if the West punished Tehran over its nuclear program. Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $1.02 to $73.35 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midafternoon in Singapore. The contract rose Friday to $72.33 following the kidnapping of eight foreigners working on a drilling rig off the coast of Nigeria. The workers were released Sunday. July Brent crude futures on London's ICE Futures rose $1.03 to $72.06 per barrel. Iran's...

CRUDE oil from Azerbaijan is being loaded today on to a British vessel on the Turkish Mediterranean coast, a test cargo that inaugurates BP’s $4 billion (£2.1 billion) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, a vital piece of energy infrastructure that will deliver 1 million barrels per day of high quality oil into the Mediterranean. The first attempt to forge a direct link between Europe and the oilfields of Central Asia, the BTC pipeline is coming on stream as concern mounts that a speculative bubble is supporting the current high price of crude oil. A steady and increasing flow of crude from the...

Drivers frustrated with paying $3-plus at the pump are taking out their "gas rage" on station clerks and managers, yelling at them and sometimes driving off without paying. Zahid Wahlla has managed the Kent Island Gateway Shell, the first gas station after the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on the way to the beach, for four years. Now he is thinking about selling it because of angry customers and slowing sales. Even though Memorial Day weekend was the station's busiest weekend in the past six months, business is slower than it has been since he opened the station. "We used to be...

After eight months of intensive investigation, the Federal Trade Commission said it found that gasoline prices tend to rise when supplies are perceived to be scarce. The $10 million study mandated by Congress, found that the average price of gasoline in disaster areas was higher than prices under normal conditions. "It's the weirdest thing," said Jack Ashe, FTC analyst. "It's almost as if there is some kind of hidden force because everywhere we looked we found that as supplies went down, prices went up. And that wasn't all, we also found that when demand went up, so did prices." Economics...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell $1 on Monday to a six-week low as concern that inflation may slow economic growth encouraged selling across commodities markets. U.S. crude was trading 98 cents lower at $67.55 a barrel at 0819 GMT after falling more than $1 to its lowest level since April 10. Brent crude was down 84 cents at $67.85. The drop added to a slide of nearly 5 percent last week after signs that the record cost of many raw materials was pushing up the cost of living and hitting consumers' pockets. Rising inflation may force central banks to...