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8A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY OF DABY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27TH 2023
INTERNATIONAL
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2007
China expands oil production
Two top companies to battle weeks of diesel shortages
BY JOE MCDONALD ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING — China's two main oil companies have promised to step up diesel production, the government said Tuesday, following two weeks of shortages blamed on price controls that have disrupted trucking and caused long lines at filling stations.
The government raised diesel and gasoline prices by about 10 percent last week to curb demand at a time when refiners say they losing money because of controls that block them from passing on record-high crude costs to consumers. Some refiners responded by suspending production, leading to rationing.
Executives of China National Petroleum Corp. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., agreed to expand refining and "ensure domestic supplies" after a meeting Monday with government officials, said a statement by China's main planning agency, the National Development and Reform
Commission.
It didn't indicate how long the changes might take to affect supplies at the pump.
The shortages have forced truck and bus drivers to wait for hours at filling stations to buy fuel. One trucking company said its delivery times have doubled as a result.
But economists say the shortages are unlikely to have an impact on China's overall economy unless they last for several months.
The government gave no indication Tuesday whether it would compensate CNPC and Sinpec for losses from the additional refining.
CNPC and Sinopec, both state-owned, are expected to act like profit-making companies but Beijing has forced them to shield consumers from rising world oil costs by holding down retail prices. That has pinched their earnings, even though the two companies have seen revenues soar due to China's economic boom and an increase in private car ownership.
On Monday, CNPC's publicly traded unit, PetroChina Ltd., briefly became the world's first 1 trillion company by market capitalization when its shares debuted on the Shanghai stock exchange and nearly tripled in value before falling slightly on Tuesday, PetroChina shares already were traded in New York and Hong Kong.
China suffered a less serious fuel shortage last year, also blamed on lack of refining capacity. Beijing prodded both major oil suppliers to increase supplies and made up some of their losses at the end of the year with a tax rebate.
Last week's price hike was China's first in 18 months. It also was a reversal from a government order in September that froze prices for gasoline, cooking oil and other basic goods in an attempt to rein in a surge in inflation.
Regulators had resisted earlier appeals by oil companies to raise prices, saying they needed to protect China's poor, who have seen food costs rise sharply this year.
Even after the increase, China's prices are among the lowest of any major country at about $3.20 per gallon for gasoline and $2.69 per gallon for diesel.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
INTERNATIONAL
A Spanish rescue ship tows a boat with 60 would-be immigrants aboard after being intercepted as it crossed over from western Africa, in Puerto de los Cristianos, to the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife, Monday. Thousands of African immigrants arrive by boat every year trying to find a better way of life in Europe. The dangerous trip often takes more than a week, and many die in the attempt.
Migrant voyage to Spain deadly
BY DANIEL WOOLLS ASSOCIATED PRESS
When the vessel was found, there were 100 people aboard and two dead bodies, the official said under department rules barring her name from being published.
It was one of the highest death tolls this year among Africans trying to escape poverty and reach Europe's southern gateway.
The boat, which set out from Senegal with as many as 150 people and apparently traveled hundreds of miles, was found Tuesday by a Mauritanian patrol boat, a Spanish Civil Guard official said.
In Mauritania, officials agreed that there were 98 survivors, but otherwise offered slightly different numbers.
Yahfdhou Ould Amar, chief of police for the northern port city of Nouadhibou, said 45 people died in the voyage — presumably from hunger, cold and thirst. The boat apparently set sail from southern Senegal on Oct. 16 with 143 people aboard and its motor failed last week off Morocco's coast, much further to the north. It was unclear if the boat then turned around or just drifted southward before being intercepted Tuesday, Amar said.
MADRID, Spain — Dozens of migrants trying to reach Europe spent three weeks at sea off West Africa's coast and threw nearly 50 bodies overboard after their vessel lost power and supplies dwindled, officials said Tuesday.
The survivors were exhausted, and many appeared to be in shock, said Mohamed Ould Hamada, head of the Mauritanian branch of the Red Cross in Nouadhibou. He said the U.N. and other international groups had dispatched teams to help the survivors.
Most of the group were Senegalese, along with some from Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Gambia, Hamada said. They told relief workers that the captain of the boat had perished.
Hundreds of migrants die each year while attempting to reach Spain by sailing in simple wooden fishing boats from West Africa to Spain's Canary Islands, just off Morocco's coast. The trip often takes more than a week. In July, some 50 migrants died off the coast of Africa when their boat capsized just as a Spanish patrol vessel tried to come to its aid.
In December, 80 others died when their boat sank off Senegal's coast. Spain says increased air and sea surveillance of Africa's coast has led to a sharp drop in the number of people attempting the journey. While 24,000 people were caught trying to sail to Spain last year, as of late August, the figure was down to 8,000, according to the Interior Ministry.
presents two prize-winning one-act plays by KU students
50 years of sex and romance
Please Take...Seriously!
by Adam Lott
Directed by Jeremy Auman
50 years of love and marriage
Lights Fade, Curtain
by Whitney Rowland
Directed by Paul Stephen Lim
Scenic & Lighting Design by Lee Saylor Sound Design by Nick Mosher Costume design by Ione Unruh
8 finalists from the "How My Parents Met" writing competition will be featured at each performance, and a cash prize of $100 will be awarded to the winner after the show.
7:30 PM Nov.9-10 2 PM Nov.11
Lawrence Arts Center
940 New Hampshire • Tel. 843-2787
$6 Students, $8 Seniors, $10 Others
Participating entries in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival
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