Oil Fields

RAQQAH, Syria — As this remote corner of northeastern Syria fast slides out of government control, many Syrians are bracing for what they fear will be another war, between the relatively moderate fighters who first took up arms against the government and the Islamist extremists who emerged more recently with the muscle and firepower to drive the rebel advance. The capture last month of the city of Raqqah, Syria's first provincial capital to fall under opposition control, consolidated the gains of an assortment of mostly ...

TRIPOLI, Libya — Huge placards proclaim "Yes to disarming," "No to a state of militias," on the building housing the Tripoli offices of Mellitah, a joint venture between Libya and Eni, the Italian oil and gas group. They are a reminder of two days of deadly clashes between rival armed groups from the towns of Zintan and Zuara over who should guard Mellitah's oil and gas complex in western Libya. The firefight last month left at least one dead and several injured. It also disrupted production and caused a...

CORRECTION: The article incorrectly said that the New York Times had reported that U.S. advisers in Iraq influenced the selection of Western oil companies for service contracts. The Times article said the advisers "played an integral part" in drawing up the contracts but cited the advisers and another official saying they were not involved in choosing the companies. BAGHDAD, June 30 -- Iraq's government invited foreign firms Monday to help boost the production of the country's major oil fields, beginning a global competition for...

RAQQAH, Syria — As this remote corner of northeastern Syria fast slides out of government control, many Syrians are bracing for what they fear will be another war, between the relatively moderate fighters who first took up arms against the government and the Islamist extremists who emerged more recently with the muscle and firepower to drive the rebel advance. The capture last month of the city of Raqqah, Syria's first provincial capital to fall under opposition control, consolidated the gains of an assortment of mostly ...

BAGHDAD, Oct. 13 -- Iraq opened bidding Monday on the first round of contracts to develop its oil fields since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a move intended to jump-start a sector crucial to the country's rebuilding. Iraq has the world's third-largest oil reserves. But despite five years of efforts and $2.7 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds, Iraqi production is still well below the frequently cited U.S. goal of 3 million barrels per day. Oil fields have been looted and attacked by insurgents since the 2003 U.S.-led...

TRIPOLI, Libya — Huge placards proclaim "Yes to disarming," "No to a state of militias," on the building housing the Tripoli offices of Mellitah, a joint venture between Libya and Eni, the Italian oil and gas group. They are a reminder of two days of deadly clashes between rival armed groups from the towns of Zintan and Zuara over who should guard Mellitah's oil and gas complex in western Libya. The firefight last month left at least one dead and several injured. It also disrupted production...

When colleagues want to conduct business with Sally Jewell , they have a better chance getting her to schedule a lengthy hike than a coffee date. President Obama's unconventional pick to lead the Interior Department — a former oil engineer and commercial banker who heads the consumer co-op Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) — represents an effort by the administration to defuse the partisan fight over conservation and energy. Jewell, who lacks the political experience...

Libya's oil and gas sector, long the lifeblood of this desert nation, has made a surprising recovery since the country's bloody 2011 revolution. Thanks to concerted efforts by the national oil company — and those of major foreign firms that have retained a leading role in Libya's oil fields for decades — the country's oil production has climbed back to 1.4 million barrels a day in recent months, according to the International Energy Agency...

It's hard to miss the point of the "Blood for Oil" Web site. It features one poster of an American flag with "Blood for oil?" in white block letters where the stars should be and two dripping red handprints across the stripes. Another shows a photo of President Bush with a thin black line on his upper lip. "Got oil?" the headline asks wryly. Five years after the United States invaded Iraq, plenty of people believe that the war was waged chiefly to secure U.S. petroleum supplies and to make Iraq safe -- and lucrative -- for the U.S....

Mohammad Mashayekhi, an Iranian educator and university president who was active in efforts to democratize his country's school system in the years before the Islamic revolution, died Feb. 14 at his home in the District. He was 99. The cause was pneumonia, said his daughter Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss, a former treasurer and chief investment officer of the World Bank who is married to presidential historian Michael Beschloss. Dr. Mashayekhi began his professional life in the 1940s as a high...

Libya's oil and gas sector, long the lifeblood of this desert nation, has made a surprising recovery since the country's bloody 2011 revolution. Thanks to concerted efforts by the national oil company — and those of major foreign firms that have retained a leading role in Libya's oil fields for decades — the country's oil production has climbed back to 1.4 million barrels a day in recent months, according to the International Energy Agency...

Mohammad Mashayekhi, an Iranian educator and university president who was active in efforts to democratize his country's school system in the years before the Islamic revolution, died Feb. 14 at his home in the District. He was 99. The cause was pneumonia, said his daughter Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss, a former treasurer and chief investment officer of the World Bank who is married to presidential historian Michael Beschloss. Dr. Mashayekhi began his professional life in the 1940s as a...

BEIRUT — Rebel fighters captured a town in the oil-rich province of Hasaka in northeastern Syria on Thursday after three days of heavy fighting, opposition activists said. Among the rebels were members of the al-Nusra Front, an extremist Islamic group thought to have links to al-Qaeda, that has proved to include some of the most capable fighters in the opposition forces. Rebels also shot down two Syrian military jets in Idlib province, in the northwest, and one in central Hama province, according...

When colleagues want to conduct business with Sally Jewell , they have a better chance getting her to schedule a lengthy hike than a coffee date. President Obama's unconventional pick to lead the Interior Department — a former oil engineer and commercial banker who heads the consumer co-op Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) — represents an effort by the administration to defuse the partisan fight over conservation and energy. Jewell, who lacks the political...

Melville House's name for its line of paperback reprints, Neversink Library, is not only apt (the idea being that these books are too good to sink into oblivion) but also loyal. It comes from Herman Melville's novel " White Jacket ," where the ship on which the action takes place is called the Neversink, and opposite each title page in the new series is a quotation from that novel on the value of books that "pretend to little, but abound in much. " Maurice Dekobra's rollicking, elegant novel " ...

SEN. MARK BEGICH D-Alaska In Alaska [in the Arctic around the Cook Inlet basin], the biggest complaint is getting a rig. It has now become the biggest problem in oil fields across this country. Eighty five percent of our revenue stream is from oil and gas, we've already set a goal by 2025: 50 percent of our in-use, in-state use of energy will be renewable energy. We're at 27 percent. We'll beat every state by 2025 by that kind of statistic. We do...

SUNDAY: The Market Squeeze. World oil supplies are stagnating as demand, primarily from developing countries, is accelerating, propelling global oil prices upward. MONDAY: Demand. America's love affair with the car has gone global, creating a clamor for oil even as industrialized countries tame their consumption. TODAY: Supply. Old oil fields are running dry and, despite new technology, there may not be enough new ones within reach to meet surging demand.

BAGHDAD, June 27 -- Iraq is poised to open its coveted oil fields to foreign companies this week for the first time in nearly four decades, a politically risky move in a country eager to shake off the stigma of occupation. Iraqi politicians and some veteran oil officials have said the deals are unduly beneficial to oil giants, which are viewed warily by many in this deeply nationalistic but cash-strapped country. Oil executives have been following the matter with apprehension, industry analysts said, but they are eager to get a...

BAGHDAD — Over the past four decades, Iraq's oil production has traced the path of a roller coaster, propelled upward by geysers of crude and dragged downward by the weight of war and sanctions. In the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraqi output has failed to achieve the heights it reached under Saddam Hussein — until now. In April, Iraq exported more crude than it has in any month since it invaded Kuwait in 1990. This success, according to analysts and policymakers, could jolt the global economy and help offset the loss of...

Argentina's hostile takeover of YPF, a Spanish-owned oil producer that is the largest energy company here, was to many economists a blunder that would only curtail foreign investment in a country starving for cash. But as Argentina's congress on Thursday night approved the expropriation of Repsol's prized affiliate , President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's government was gambling that the recent discovery of what could be billions of barrels of oil and gas in Patagonia would be too...