The man who burned two police officers before escaping remains at large late Tuesday night, but TSR reports police as saying his car has been found, deserted by the 25-year-old near Clées, just off the A9 autoroute southwest of Yverdon, not far from the Swiss-French border.
Update 23:20 LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Two canton Vaud police officers were seriously injured when a man threw boiling hot oil at them as he tried to escape after police were called to a domestic violence incident near Orbe at 10:00 Tuesday morning 23 August. The 25-year-old Swiss man, who was known to police for drug abuse but not for domestic violence, had taken his wife hostage.
Police convinced the man, who appeared very aggressive, to let his 23-year-old wife, who is Algerian, escape at 10:50, but he then retreated further into his apartment and locked himself in. He refused to cooperate with police and threatened to kill them, so the team called for reinforcements and blocked off the premises. The man’s wife was taken in by social services and given counseling.
The specialist team took up positions around the building, with some of them in the elevator at 12:30 when the man suddenly burst out of the apartment and threw the boiling oil on them. One police officer has serious burns to a shoulder, arm and thigh and another has burns to one arm.
The man took advantage of the confusion to flee out a dormer window onto the roof, from where he climbed onto the roof of a neighbouring building and down to the street and his car, a black BMW 330 i with Vaud plates. A police office from Orbe tried to stop him and he nearly ran over the policeman as he tried to reverse into him. He drove off, in the direction of Montcherand.
By late afternoon a large manhunt was underway in the Orbe, Ste Croix and Vallorbe area for the man, who remains at large: 25 police patrols, an army helicopter with two air search specialist police officers, border guards, French gendarmes and police from Neuchatel, Fribourg and Geneva are also involved.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Tamoil’s controversial refinery on the cantons Vaud and Valais border, is set to begin operating again. The refinery is owned by Dutch group Oilinvest, which is owned by a Libyan government investment fund. The refinery at Collombey, near Lausanne, has been plagued by political problems because of its Libyan links as well as accusations from locals and nature groups including WWF of dirtying the nearby Rhone River.
The refinery closed for repairs in March but is now scheduled to gear up fully by the end of May.
AP reports that the 50,000 barrel-a-day refinery accounts for 42 percent of fuels produced in Switzerland, with Petroplus Holdings’s Cressier plant able to process 68,000 barrels of oil daily.
Ugandans went to the polls Friday 18 February and, unlike their fellow Africans in rebelling Arab nations, it appears that the votes for the country’s president and parliamentary candidates were mostly cast peacefully. It is widely predicted that incumbant President Yoweri Museveni will win, but there have been some accusations of voting irregularities.
Museveni has been in power for 25 years, which makes him an easy target for those who worry about dictators, but his rule has been so much less violent than that of a predecessor, Idi Amin, that critics’ voices are relatively muted.
Uganda’s average annual growth rate of 8 percent for fiscal years 2001-2008, according to World Bank figures, has been the best in East Africa, and now Uganda looks set to hit the oil jackpot, all of which are reportedly seen by Ugandans as a reason to vote for more of the same.
Links to other sites: Business Week, Fox News opinion, UG Pulse,
Inflation in the UK rose to 3.7 percent in December, an 8-month high and well above the target of 2 percent set by the Bank of England. Inflation is expected to rise again in January because of a new year increase in VAT (value added tax), from 17.5 percent to 20 percent. The central bank had forecast a year-end rate of 3.2 percent but the rapidly rising price of oil, in particular, sent prices spiralling up. The initial reaction to the news came on currency markets, where the pound rose against the dollar to an eight-week high as investors gambled on when the central bank will intervene.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg/Business Week, Financial Times, Reuters, UK
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Swiss consumers are paying one-third more for food than their EU counterparts, and as much as twice the price for meat, new federal statistics show.
The difference has increased in the past two years, thanks in large part to a strong franc as the euro has weakened.
Meat prices showed a marked difference because of production costs in Switzerland and because imports are strictly limited. The Swiss eat, on average, 53.45 kg of meat a year.
Cooking oil, fish, canned and dried goods all show price differences above the average.
Links to other sites: Swiss meat, TSR
US must also end its addiction to fossil fuels, president insists
US President Barack Obama told Americans during his first televised news conference, a 17-minute speech, that BP will be held accountable and must pay for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that has sent millions of tons of oil into the water for the past two months. “This oil spill is the worst environmental disaster American has ever faced,” he said”And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it is not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes of days.” Obama also insisted that Americans must see this as a signal that it is time to end the nation’s addiction to fossil fuels. He argued that the long-term cost of oil dependency is far greater than that of breaking with it.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Houston Chronicle with text of Obama speech, Miami Herald, NPR
Beach-lovers in Florida are watching warily as the Gulf oil spill and debris move towards them, BP shares appear to have stabilized after a slide and the US government is keen to put legislation in place to prevent another such disaster. Wednesday the British company was using submarine robots to free a trapped pipe saw, in its latest efforts to plug the underwater oil gusher that continues to send oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Reuters
Video, Reuters
Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez da Kirchner announced 16 February that ships going from the South American mainland to the Falklands/Malvinas will need a licence from Argentina. Britain promptly rejected the move, saying that the waters around the Falklands are UK territorial waters and the licenses will not apply. It has told the shipping industry to ignore the Argentine instructions when going from international waters to Falklands territorial waters. The two countries have disputed ownership of the islands since the 19th century and in 1982 they fought a short war, which the British Royal Navy won. Diplomatic relations were resumed in 1990. Observers are calling the new, stronger stance by Argentina “worrying”, suggesting that drilling for oil in the region may lie behind the move, with Argentina wanting a share.
Links to other countries: BBC, Canadian Press, El Pais (Spa), Mercopress
Three Britons and a Columbian working for oil giant Royal Dutch Shell have been kidnapped by armed gunmen while on their way to work near Port Harcourt, southern Nigeria’s oil centre in the Niger River delta. The men’s police escort was shot dead and the driver critically injured in the attack early Tuesday 12 January.
The area has been the scene of attacks on oil installations and on oil company employees by militants fighting for a greater share of the wealth being extracted. Production has declined 20 percent since 2006 because of the violence.
Sinopec, one of China’s largest oil companies, has signed a 20-year agreement with Exxon Mobil for liquefied gas supplies from Papua New Guinea, for an undisclosed sum. The move is the latest in a string of energy agreements and follows a major deal signed some weeks ago by competitor PetroChina and Australia. China’s energy needs are expected to grow by 8 percent this year, according to the Chinese government.
Links to other sites: BBC, Chicago Tribune, Xinhua
China has begun supplying oil to Iran in the past month and already accounts for one-third of the country’s fuel imports, the Financial Times reports. Oil imports are not part of a United Nations sanction and the supplies are legal, but the move comes as G20 world leaders, meeting in New York Wednesday 23 September, discuss enforcing sanctions against Iran to discourage it from further developing its nuclear programme. Iran insists the nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, as a source of energy, and that it is not building bombs. The country is one of the world’s largest oil producers, but its aging system is inefficient and it imports 120,000 barrels a day, according to the FT. China agreed in 2004 to purchase oil from Iran and to invest in its system. The $100 billion deal in 2006 prompted concern in the US, with observers saying that China appeared to be rushing to sign the deal ahead of sanctions. In the latest twist to the story China’s oil replaces that from companies such as BP which have stopped supplying Iran. Washington Post, 2006, Brookings Institution editorial, July 2009
British oil company BP says it has discovered a new oil field, the largest find in recent years, some 250 miles southeast of Houston, Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. The company believes it has at least 3 billion barrels of oil. Financial Times, Guardian, Wikipedia
Oil prices rose to their highest since October 2008 in trading 24 August. A barrel of light sweet crude oil trading on the NY Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) for October delivery touched $74.81 before closing at $74.37. Traders give several reasons, chief among them the continuing demand for oil from China, which has seen a massive expansion in the number of automobiles on the road. Oil output from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia is steady, and the onset of the hurricane season in the North Atlantic adds to supply worries. Increased optimism about the economy is driving the price of commodities higher, too. US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was cautiously optimistic about the US economy last week and said that it was nearing recovery.
Others are not so optimistic. Nouriel Roubini, a NY University professor who accurately predicted the world financial melt-down, says that growth could be anemic for several years in the major economies. He says that commodity prices are running ahead of fundamentals and sees signs of speculation in those markets. BBC, Reuters, Romandie News (Fre)
Russia and Cuba have signed agreements to explore for oil in the North Cuba Basin of the Gulf of Mexico, with Cuba saying there could be as much as 20 billion barrels of oil, although the United States says it is more likely to be around five billion barrels. Part of the agreement is a Russian loan for $120 for equipment and technology. Cuba currently buys more than half of its oil from Venezuela. BBC, Miami Herald
Swiss foreign trade, climbing down
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss foreign trade plummeted 16 percent in the first half of the year, according to figures published 21 July by the Swiss Federal Customs Administration (SFCA). Both import and export figures dropped to levels last seen in 2006, and the second quarter figures were much worse than those for the first quarter of the year. The fall in exports is the worst six month period decline recorded.
The balance of trade was CHF9 billion, down 10 percent over a year, a fall explained by an unusual, massive import of gold jewelry for remelting, from Vietnam.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez extended his government’s control over the petroleum industry Friday by sending military vehicles to seize the assets of 60 oil industry service providers. The state oil company PDVSA owes foreign oil companies billions of dollars, but has cash flow problems due to the slump in oil prices. Reuters, BBC, El Nacional (Spa)
Spreitenbach, Aargau, Switzerland (Le Temps/ats, Fre) – A 10-year-old boy set his apartment alight when he tried to douse a fire in the kitchen by pouring water on it. He had put oil into a pan to heat it when the pan caught fire. The boy is reportedly uninjured, but was taken to hospital after a neighbour noticed the smoke and found the boy, who was in shock.
The price of oil is down by half since July, forcing oil-rich countries to face their “toughest test in years,” reports the International Herald Tribune. Opec producers are holding an emergency meeting Friday and on the agenda: how to keep prices from falling further, with consumption also dropping.
Lausanne, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Libya is stopping its oil deliveries to Switzerland, reportedly with no explanation, but the move should not have an impact on prices, reports Le Temps, based on conversations with the director of the Swiss Petroleum Union, Rolf Hartl.
