Electric Motorcycles Now Taking it Head to Head with Gas Motorcycles February 9, 2012 No Comments
Created by Christian Crisostomo on Monday, February 6, 2012 ? Leave a Comment?
Electric bikes and scooters aren?t really that new. Though riding regular bikes are already sufficient green acts, there are always particular advantages of being able to push the speed limit a little faster in these personal vehicles. They are essentially considered as greener mopeds.
But even though they can be faster and easier to use than ordinary bicycles, electric bikes and scooters are just not powerful enough, would still be totally inferior when compared head-to-head to a standard motorcycle.
That is why automotive developers around the world are now designing and producing more powerful electric motorcycles for consumer use. These green two-wheelers still have the zero-emission qualities of electric bikes, but can now zip its way through ordinary roads as if it were a 250cc gas guzzler.
The Raw Power Evolution
The impression that consumer electric motorcycles can be as fast as regular motorcycle was actually completely non-existent a few years back. Sure, electric motorcycles might have the innovation, as presented by Brammo models, but they were still nothing more than a ?badass? upgrade to electric scooters. It was not until the appearance of consumer-oriented powerful motorbikes like the BRD Redshift that things started to really change about electric motorcycles.
The BRD Redshift is a 250 pound 40 horsepower electric motorcycle. Though it may seem crude, unimpressive, and even feeble for a real speed monster like the Dodge Tomahawk, it is still a quantum leap with its 56 mph (90 km/h) top speed and 80 km (50 miles) range. The addition of the 100% instant torque capability of electric vehicles makes it look even faster (although this is also the reason why it has a reduced default rpm setting).
Silent, and Quite Futuristic
The best thing about electric vehicles are that they are relatively silent among other things. Naturally, an electric motorcycle also does not produce any considerable noise. For motorbike enthusiasts, the absence of the excitement given by the loud roar of the throttle might be a bit depressing though.
But wouldn?t it look better if we are to imagine it as a clean, futuristic bike? Imagine the silent whizz of the electric motorcycle as the noise of Vulture or speeder bikes. Feel the instantaneous increase in speed as if you are simply riding with the wind. Drive around late at night without bothering anyone in your neighborhood.
The Brighter Future
Like an electric vehicle, electric motorcycles should only get better with newer models that come out each year. One of the newest updates for the year 2012 is the Volta BCN, an electric motorcycle designed by Volta Motorbikes that is slated to be available to consumers in the second quarter of the year.
If these electric motorcycles can already achieve what they could now, just imagine how future improvements could affect their power and efficiency. Maybe we could even integrate other technologies that would not only make an electric motorcycle greener, but also a lot safer for the driver.
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by +++CoolValley+++ via Flickr
Christian Crisostomo is a researcher and an observer of humanity’s technological progress. He is also a green technology enthusiast and an advocate of environment-friendly alternative energy.
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Source: http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/2012/02/electric-motorcycles-gas-motorcycles/
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Drug Rehab – Addicts Siblings Share Risk | Solutions Recovery No Comments
Family Drug Addiction
In families with a history of drug abuse, siblings who didn?t use drugs demonstrated similar brain patterns and poor self control as their addicted brothers and sisters, British researchers reported in the journal Science.
Siblings with a family history of substance abuse grew up in abusive homes, but only some became addicts, neuroscientist Karen Ersche and her colleagues from Cambridge University said.
?People are 8 times more likely to become addicted to drugs if they have a family history,? she said. ?We wanted to know how people managed to come from troubled backgrounds and not develop addictions like their brothers and sisters.?
Researchers tested brain scans in 50 sibling pairs and discovered definite abnormalities compared with the individuals without a family history, the study showed.? The drug addicts and their siblings exhibited lower volumes of gray matter in parts of the brain associated with compulsive behavior.
Participants also performed self-control tests to measure their tendency for addiction. Siblings in the study underwent a stop-signal test that required them suppress a response when they heard a sound.
While researchers expected the addicts to have a low level of self-control, they were surprised to find that the siblings also had lower self-restraint, Ersche said.
?If you struggle to control behavior then there is a risk that the drugs will take over,? she said.
The results of the study have significant implications for further treatment and understanding underlying causes of addiction, researchers said.
Interventions that focus on improved self-control is one avenue researchers are exploring, Ersche said. Using information about why siblings didn?t succumb to compulsive or addictive behavior is another important key in battling addiction.
Finding a familial risk for addiction does not necessarily mean that people will become addicts, said Joseph Troiani, director of the substance abuse program at the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago.
See the full Medill Reports story here
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Santorum wins Missouri GOP presidential primary (The Arizona Republic) No Comments
Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/197040973?client_source=feed&format=rss
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A Visitors Guide to Prince Edward Island … – Business Travel Tours No Comments
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Source: http://www.businesstraveltours.com/a-visitors-guide-to-prince-edward-island-holiday-houses.html
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Cheap UK Staycation | Help Me To Save – Posterous February 8, 2012 No Comments
Written by Karen Bryan
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I believe that having a travel and leisure element to your budget is a good thing, even if it?s a small percentage of your overall living expenses. I find one of the best ways to stretch our cash is to take a UK staycation. At the end of last month we spent two nights at the Travelodge Edinburgh West End and only paid ?12 a night for our room, purchased during the Travelodge Winter 2011 Sale.
Travelodge West End Edinburgh
While that Travelodge isn?t going to win any architectural awards, the hotel is in a quiet location, close the city centre, the family rooms are a good size and comfortable and there?s even free wifi in the Bar Cafe. At a money saving price of ?12 a night for the room, it?s a low cost base for a UK short break.
We drove to Edinburgh for our short break, so paid an additional ?3 a night to park at the hotel. However you could walk to the hotel from Haymarket Station in around 15 minutes, so could use the train if you found a cheap ticket.
You can pay for a Travelodge breakfast buffet which costs ?7.56 per adult, kids eat free with an paying adult. We usually take some food with us and prepare our breakfast in the room to save more.
The hotel is situated on the Water of Leith, so you can take a riverside walk.? The Scottish Galleries of Modern Art (free to enter) are a five minute walk from the hotel. On the Sunday we ate lunch at Jimmy Chungs Chinese Buffet for ?7 each.
I think that I?ve illustrated that you can enjoy a UK staycation without breaking the bank, if you look out for special offer/sales and travel off peak.
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Source: http://www.helpmetosave.com/2012/02/staycation/
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Dierks Bentley returns ‘Home’ to mainstream sound (AP) No Comments
Dierks Bentley, “Home” (Capitol Nashville)
A banjo kicks off Dierks Bentley’s new album “Home,” recalling a backwoods sound prevalent on his previous, bluegrass-inspired album “Up on the Ridge.”
The similarities stop there. The bluegrass album generated rave reviews and but no radio hits. With “Home,” Bentley returns to contemporary country music and the top of the charts ? in the distinctive fashion that has established him among country music’s most interesting hit-makers.
Bentley always utilizes banjo, fiddle, mandolin and especially dobro in his music, but with a modern beat and energy that, along with his distinctive voice, gives him a compelling sound of his own.
Like his peers, he regularly offers songs about celebrating with friends. “Am I The Only One,” already a No. 1 hit, as well as “Tip It On Back” and “5-1-5-0″ are as entertaining as any partying songs coming from Jason Aldean and Eric Church.
But the Arizona native separates himself from his peers with love songs, which feature a sensual quality rare in modern country music. The steamy “Breathe You In” and the tortured “In My Head” are outstanding relationship songs, while “Home,” a valentine to America, is a patriotic ode that doesn’t stoop to jingoism.
“Home” indeed finds Bentley back where he belongs: On the top of the country music charts.
CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: The soulfully swaying “When You Gonna Come Around,” a sexy duet with Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town, makes flirting sound as if it’s going to lead to an inevitably positive conclusion.
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North Shore 104.9 ? Blog Archive ? Legal Sense 02-04-12 No Comments
“Legal Sense” with?Attorney ?Margot Birke of Elder Law Solutions, is a continuing conversation on top of the mind issues related to estate and disability planning for yourself and those you love. ?She is looking forward to the opportunity to discuss topics that are of great interest to those who are older or disabled and who worry about being able to maintain their independence and preserve their options. ?This week, Margot continues her ongoing discussion on the?indispensable?guide to estate planning (trusts).
Source: http://ns1049.podbean.com/2012/02/06/legal-sense-02-04-12/
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Vital Information About Web Design Charlotte Businesses Should … No Comments
Web design Charlotte experts know which important methods to consider. Without a decent design, a website looks unprofessional and will not attract new customers. Even worse, the unappealing pages might even drive current customers away to a rival business.
Cheap and free software mean anyone can have a go at creating a website. However, that is a trap that many amateurs fall into. A professional designer will know what works and what does not work. Letting the experts manage it is often the best policy.
There are many considerations to make when deciding what to include and what to leave out. The first thing to think about is whether it is easy for customers and visitors to use. Make it too difficult to navigate and there will be no benefit at all.
Think about the target audience that the business is trying to attract. If it for musicians in Charlotte, do not make it look like a government website. Charlotte gamers will not be drawn in by something that looks like an online food retailer. Focus on the user and plan the design from there.
Think about how the site visitor operates. Some might need online chat or live help, while others look for a simply library environment for research and reference. Allowing the users to choose their method of interaction will help increase the site?s reputation.
It is said that colors and shapes can affect decisions. If that is the case, make sure the page and content color is in keeping with the emotion that is should be generated. For example, white is for cleanliness, red for excitement, green for harmony, and so on.
Having an online presence is more important now then ever before. It helps to create a dialog between a business and its client, and maintains a communication line to what users really want. Careful consideration of all factors will mean that using web design Charlotte professionals will produce a fruitful and beneficial experience for all online visitors. web design charlotte
Find out more about web design charlotte at our website
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The Business of Writing: Introduction – Patricia C. Wrede's Blog No Comments
I have never met a would-be writer who has a business plan.
OK, I haven?t met many professional writers who have a formal business plan, either. Nevertheless, every last professional writer I know, of whatever genre, pays a great deal of attention to the business of writing, one way or another. Unfortunately, for most writers, on-the-job training is all they ever get when it comes to the business end of things (quite a few don?t even want that much, and reality tends to be a nasty shock for them, because if you are writing and selling your stories, or hope to do so, you?re running a business whether you like it or not).
I?m lucky. I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs who talked business over dinner?and pretty much anywhere else they happened to be. I enjoy reading business books and magazines; I enjoy talking business (except when my Dad and my brother start going off into engineering specifications). I loved getting my M. B. A., and I really enjoyed being an accountant and financial analyst before I quit my day job twenty-five years ago to write full time. I just liked writing more?plus, I knew even then that as a full-time writer, I?d get plenty of chances to do business-type stuff, while as an accountant, I probably wouldn?t get a lot of opportunities to write about dragons.
Back in business school, I learned the standard model for business organization, but I don?t believe I?ve ever seen it applied to writing. So I?ve decided to do that now. There are seven basic areas, and I?m going to do one post per area after this overview, and maybe a summing-up afterward, so if this is something you?re totally uninterested in, you can skip the next four weeks? worth of posts (though if you are hoping to get professionally published at all, let alone make a living at this, I?d really recommend at least skimming the posts and thinking about what-all I?m going to say).
The seven basic areas that every business has to cover, one way or another, are:
1. Operations – This includes primarily production, but also design, development, and fulfillment. For writers, that?s everything from having the idea to delivering the first draft: research, developing/prewriting, notes and outlining, and, of course, actually writing the book and shipping it off to the editor.
2. Sales and marketing – Sales is defined as ?the act of selling a product in return for money or other compensation.? For writers, sales can be split into direct (selling a book directly to the reader) and indirect (licensing production to a publisher, who produces and sells the book directly to readers). Marketing is the strategy that?a business uses to get to the sales part.
3. Quality control – This is where products and processes are tested for defects. For writers, this obviously includes all of the editing and revision parts of the job, but it also includes less obvious things like motivation, confidence, and getting enough sleep.
4. Finance – All the monetary aspects of a business. For writers, this used to break down primarily into managing cash flow, recordkeeping, and tax preparation, but it?s rapidly getting more complex as new options arise in the other areas, which need to be balanced and evaluated.
5. Administration – The overall organization of people and processes, including everything from office management to the human resources department. For writers, it covers the day-to-day tasks of making and tracking submissions, filing, etc., but also things like skills development.
6. Public Relations – This has to do with the relationship between a business and the public in general – both the business? current customers and all of the rest of the people who aren?t customers now but who may or may not become so at some future point. Writers usually lump it in with sales and marketing, but it?s much more general.
7. Executive – This has to do with strategic planning and with overseeing everything else; for writers, that means keeping an eye on all the other categories to make sure nothing is left out and everything stays in balance (which can be quite a trick for a one-person business). This is also where long-range forward planning goes, as well as a whole set of choices that get lumped under ?managing your writing career.?
Generally speaking, the first two areas (Operations and Sales & Marketing) are considered ?line? functions, because they are the things that bring in the money. Everything else is a ?staff? function, that is,?tasks that support the money-making side of the business, but that don?t directly generate income. Staff functions are necessary (just try running a business without paying taxes!), but the fundamental difference between jobs that directly generate income and jobs that don?t remains.
Juggling all this stuff is especially complicated for writers, because we?re trying to do most/all of it ourselves. Yes, the editor, agent, accountant/tax-preparer, publicist, and housecleaner all count as help, but it is very rare for a writer to be able to hand the whole of any of these seven?job areas off to any of these support people – and it?s rarer still for a writer to be able to afford even one full-time employee. Also, even when one is just getting started it is common for more than one of these areas to be active at the same time. Once one is fully launched into a writing career, they?re pretty much all going on constantly, and not in any particularly logical order, either.
The kinds of things writers need to do in each area, and the degree of importance of each, varies somewhat depending on what stage the writer?s career is at, too. Unpublished and just-published writers will have to put more of their Administration time into setting up tracking systems for the long haul, for instance, whereas a midlist writer might be spending that time networking and practicing writing skills and a bestselling author might be keeping an eye on foreign editions and making travel arrangements for publicity gigs. It?s all still Administration, though.
I could probably natter on about each of these areas for?pages and pages?at a time, but for now I?m keeping this to one post per topic. That means?I?ll talk mainly?about the general kinds of things involved in each area, rather than a specific set of how-to recommendations, but one has to start somewhere.
Next post, the first line function: Operations.
Source: http://pcwrede.com/blog/the-business-of-writing-introduction/
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China forges Arab ties, hedging bets in the Gulf No Comments
In this Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 photo, Arabs visit Dragon Mart in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Even as China rejects Western sanctions on its business partner Iran, it is forging deeper ties to Saudi Arabia and other U.S.-allied Arab nations across the Gulf. The growing links extend beyond a string of multibillion-dollar oil ventures. Chinese firms are helping build the Gulf’s railways, Arab investors are pumping cash into Chinese banks and Dubai airport is racing to keep its duty-free shelves stocked with Chunghwa cigarettes coveted by businessmen from Beijing.(AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
In this Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 photo, Arabs visit Dragon Mart in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Even as China rejects Western sanctions on its business partner Iran, it is forging deeper ties to Saudi Arabia and other U.S.-allied Arab nations across the Gulf. The growing links extend beyond a string of multibillion-dollar oil ventures. Chinese firms are helping build the Gulf’s railways, Arab investors are pumping cash into Chinese banks and Dubai airport is racing to keep its duty-free shelves stocked with Chunghwa cigarettes coveted by businessmen from Beijing.(AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
In this Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 photo, a shopkeeper carries a mannequin as a woman walks into a shop at Dragon Mart in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Even as China rejects Western sanctions on its business partner Iran, it is forging deeper ties to Saudi Arabia and other U.S.-allied Arab nations across the Gulf. The growing links extend beyond a string of multibillion-dollar oil ventures. Chinese firms are helping build the Gulf’s railways, Arab investors are pumping cash into Chinese banks and Dubai airport is racing to keep its duty-free shelves stocked with Chunghwa cigarettes coveted by businessmen from Beijing. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
In this Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 photo, a man wearing a shirt with the American flag on it walks at Dragon Mart in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Even as China rejects Western sanctions on its business partner Iran, it is forging deeper ties to Saudi Arabia and other U.S.-allied Arab nations across the Gulf. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
In this Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 photo, an Emirate man leaves Dragon Mart in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Even as China rejects Western sanctions on its business partner Iran, it is forging deeper ties to Saudi Arabia and other U.S.-allied Arab nations across the Gulf. The growing links extend beyond a string of multibillion-dollar oil ventures. Chinese firms are helping build the Gulf’s railways, Arab investors are pumping cash into Chinese banks and Dubai airport is racing to keep its duty-free shelves stocked with Chunghwa cigarettes coveted by businessmen from Beijing.(AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
In this Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 photo, an Arab woman passes by a western style clothing boutique at Dragon Mart in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Even as China rejects Western sanctions on its business partner Iran, it is forging deeper ties to Saudi Arabia and other U.S.-allied Arab nations across the Gulf. The growing links extend beyond a string of multibillion-dollar oil ventures. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? To celebrate Chinese New Year last month, Dubai’s swankiest hotel bathed its sail-shaped facade in red lighting accented with an image of a twisting golden dragon.
The gesture by the $2,300-a-night Burj al-Arab was a not-so-subtle nod to the tightening bonds Beijing is forging with the kings and sheiks who rule the oil-rich Arab Gulf states, even as it stands firm in support for their regional rival Iran.
In many ways, China is following a course of keeping its business options open as it rolls ahead with securing the energy it needs to fuel its rapid growth. That complicates U.S.-led efforts to force Tehran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program, but it also allows China to expand its influence in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states long allied to the West.
“If you were to look at the Iran-China relationship in a vacuum, you’d say China imports fairly large quantities of oil” from Iran, said Afshin Molavi, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation specializing in the Middle East.
But “when you zoom out and look at it, (you see) the Saudi-China relationship is a strategic relationship. The China-Iran relationship is a transactional one,” Molavi said. “The China-Iran relationship is going to be really tested” as the U.S. and Europe ramp up efforts to isolate Tehran.
As the world’s biggest energy consumer, China’s roaring appetite for stable oil and gas supplies is driving its Gulf push ? a relationship made clearer last month when Premier Wen Jiabao traveled to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. In Saudi Arabia, Wen specifically called for the two countries to “deepen their energy partnership” and increase trade in oil and gas.
State oil giant Saudi Aramco and Chinese refiner Sinopec just finalized plans to jointly build a refinery in the Red Sea city of Yanbu capable of handling 400,000 barrels of oil a day. The two companies and Exxon Mobil Corp. are already partners in a refinery in eastern China.
Aramco last year signed a deal with PetroChina, China’s biggest oil and gas company, to supply 200,000 barrels of oil a day to a refinery planned for southern Yunnan province. Aramco CEO Khalid al-Falih said at the time: “We don’t consider ourselves simply sellers of oil to China, but rather strategic partners.”
Nearby Iran was not on Wen’s January itinerary even though China remains Iran’s trop crude oil buyer and its powerful state energy companies have rights to exploit untapped Iranian oil reserves.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s most recent figures show $43 billion in Sino-Saudi trade in 2010, and a combined $49 billion more with the other five Gulf Cooperation Council countries. That compares with just over $29 billion in trade with Iran over the same period.
“China has been attaching greater importance to … the Gulf countries, and there is bigger room for both to develop trade and economic cooperation,” said Ma Lirong, a professor at Shanghai International Studies University. “To maximize its interests, China will maintain the current relations with Iran, but in the meantime explore more sources for energy supply.”
Saudi Arabia’s smaller Gulf neighbors are getting in on the action too.
Kuwait and China recently began work on a $9 billion oil refinery and petrochemical complex in the southeastern Chinese city of Zhanjiang that will rely solely on Kuwaiti crude. Qatar is shipping liquefied natural gas to a new PetroChina terminal under a long-term supply deal.
China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp. won a contract in September to build 240 freight cars for the UAE’s new national train network. That deal followed China Railway Construction Corp.’s completion of the first phase of the so-called Mecca Metro, which opened in 2010 to ferry pilgrims between holy sites outside the Saudi city.
Gulf nations are also betting big on China.
The Qatar Investment Authority pumped $2.8 billion into Agricultural Bank of China’s 2010 initial public offering, while the Kuwait Investment Authority bought in for $800 million.
The Kuwait sovereign wealth fund has also snapped up stakes in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and government-backed brokerage Citic Securities Co. In October, it opened a representative office in Beijing ? its first overseas outpost in nearly six decades.
Chinese visitors, meanwhile, are flooding through the Arab side of the Gulf.
Dubai’s Emirates airline now flies 35 times a week to mainland China. It employs 350 Chinese staff and offers Chinese food and movies on some flights, said Richard Jewsbury, senior vice president for commercial operations in the Far East. Its smaller Gulf rivals are adding China routes too.
Colm McLoughlin, executive vice chairman of Dubai’s massive airport duty-free operation, said his best-sellers are not locally produced dates or camel-milk chocolates, but cartons of Chinese-made Chunghwa cigarettes. Sales of the smokes brought in $8.5 million last year, and more than $1 million just in January.
Dubai Duty Free is responding by doubling to more than 400 the number of Chinese staff it employs. Other employees are being issued Mandarin phrase books, and cashiers now accept Chinese currency and credit cards.
“We would be silly if we didn’t take advantage of it and try to serve them,” he said of the increased Chinese customers.
Perhaps nowhere are the flourishing China-Gulf links more evident than in the serpentine halls of Dubai’s DragonMart. Described as the largest dedicated trading center for Chinese projects outside China, the ? mile (1.2 kilometer-long) mall houses nearly 4,000 shops selling an impossibly diverse range of products ? from clothing and electronics to plaques inscribed with Quranic verses. One shop even sells forklifts.
Moneychangers and ATMs abound, though merchants like Mohammed Alamgir, a salesman at a Chinese-owned store selling industrial-strength air compressors from Shanghai, say they are happy to take just about any currency. Many of his customers travel from as far as South Africa and Libya. They often buy in bulk for resale back home, he said.
Not far away, Bangladeshi tailors sit hunched over a row of sewing machines at Feilong Trading, stitching curtains made to customers’ orders.
Jiamin Xia, the store’s manager, said products are fast to move ? “cargo easy come, easy go,” he quips ? and the opportunities are better than back home in Guangzhou.
“Here you have many customers, and they are very good” he said. “They have much money.”
From Iran’s point of view, China remains a crucial business partner.
Bilateral trade is on the rise, with everything from cheap made-in-China clothes to sport-utility vehicles pouring in. Iranian newspapers are full of ads touting business tours and pleasure trips to Chinese cities.
Chinese companies have rights to develop the prized Azadegan and Yadavaran fields, two of the most promising Iranian oil finds in decades. Tehran needs outside expertise to unlock the oil because its petroleum industry has been weakened by decades of U.S.-led sanctions.
China’s stance on Iran is hardly based on altruism, however. With Iranian oil exports under pressure from tightening U.S. sanctions and a new European Union embargo, China could be looking to lock in cheaper fuel prices as Iran tries to find a home for its crude.
“Clearly they see an opportunity to put pressure on Iran. They know Iran’s hands are tied, so why shouldn’t they benefit from this?” said Samuel Ciszuk, a consultant at KBC Energy Economics. “Iran has suddenly been forced to rely on a very, very small number” of oil customers, he added.
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AP Business Writer Joe McDonald and researcher Yu Bing in Beijing, and reporter Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Associated Press
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