China Ocean Watchdog Orders Operations Halt at Penglai 19-3 Oil Field

- China Ocean Watchdog Orders Operations Halt at Penglai 19-3 Oil Field

Friday, September 02, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
BEIJING
by Wayne Ma

China's State Oceanic Administration said Friday it is ordering a halt to all drilling and oil and gas production at the Penglai 19-3 oil field at Bohai Bay, which is operated by ConocoPhillips China.

The directive comes amid mounting public criticism against the U.S. oil company that it has been slow to act and provide information about oil spills at the field beginning in early June.

ConocoPhillips submitted a report Wednesday to the SAO and said it believed it had satisfied all the requirements laid out by the SOA for cleaning up and investigating the spill.

A ConocoPhillips spokesman said the company couldn't immediately respond to the statement, which was posted on the SOA's website.

Conoco must submit a marine environmental impact report and won't be able to restart operations until it receives approval, the SOA said.

The U.S. company hasn't satisfied the requirements for cleaning up and investigating the oil spill, it said, adding that Conoco was slow to act on the plan to clean up and investigate the spills though it made some progress in later stages.

The field's platform C hasn't been fully cleaned up and there are still leaks in the surrounding area, while cleanup measures at platform B are insufficient, it said

While operations are halted, Conoco should be willing to be strictly supervised by its joint-venture partner China National Offshore Oil Corp., or Cnooc., to prevent any new oil spills or environmental hazards, it said.

Conoco said last week that while it has sealed off all leaks at the field, residual oil, which is expected to dissipate, continues to seep from two leaks at the rate of one or two liters a day.

ConocoPhillips is responsible for operating the oil field, which has the capacity to produce 160,000 barrels of crude oil a day, in its joint venture with Cnooc.

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Iran Constitutional Watchdog Says President Cannot Run Oil Ministry

- Iran Constitutional Watchdog Says President Cannot Run Oil Ministry

Friday, May 20, 2011
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)

Iran's constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, has said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cannot run the Oil Ministry as caretaker, the Fars news agency reported Friday.

Ahmadinejad last week dismissed his oil minister Massoud Mirkazemi and took over the ministry himself, which would have also made him rotating chairman at June's OPEC meeting in Vienna.

The president argued that he planned to trim the cabinet and one of his decisions was to abolish the Oil Ministry and merge it with the Energy Ministry.

The decision caused widespread criticism in Iran and eventually the Guardian Council, which overseas the compliance of governmental and parliamentary decisions with the constitution, rejected the plan as illegal.

Ahmadinejad is involved in a row with the country's clergy and conservative factions over his reform plans, which include reducing the cabinet from 21 ministries to 17.

But the main reason for the disputes is the president's s chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son.

Mashaei is said to oppose the clergy-dominated framework of the Islamic republic's establishment and favors of a more nationalist approach to running the country.

Ahmadinejad has also been criticized for having so far supported Mashaei and effectively joined him in undermining the Islamic system.

The president denied the accusation in a televised interview but observers believe that the crisis would continue as long as Mashaei acts as the president's close adviser.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has been ruled under the Vali Faqih system, in which one senior cleric at ayatollah level has, according to the constitution, the final say on all state affairs and can even veto decisions by the president.

The supreme leadership has been in the hands of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since 1989. Ahmadinejad has been criticized by several some clergy for allegedly having disobeyed Khamenei's order over reinstating the country's intelligence chief who was fired by the president.


Copyright 2011 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

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