Fueling a Clean Transportation Future (2016) lweb.es/f856
OEF REVIEW:This report points the way to a cleaner transportation future by describing key ways we can clean up our transportation fuels. This report builds on the Union of Concerned Scientists Half the Oil plan by explaining how our major transportation fuels are changing and what we can do to reduce emissions from fuel production. Our clean fuels—electricity and biofuels—are already cutting oil use and emissions from transportation, but more work is required to deliver on their potential. Oil is getting steadily more polluting, but by holding oil companies accountable to reduce avoidable emissions and avoid the dirtiest sources, we can check that mounting climate damage and make sure that the oil we continue to use has the lowest global warming emissions possible.
OEF REVIEW:Iraq was the second-leading contributor to the growth in global oil supply in 2015, behind only the United States. Crude oil production in Iraq, including fields in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, averaged 4.0 million barrels per day in 2015, almost 700,000 barrels per day above the 2014 level. Iraq is the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and accounted for about 75% of total OPEC production growth in 2015.
OEF REVIEW:Total has started up production at the offshore Vega Pleyade gas and condensate field in the Tierra del Fuego region of Argentina. Operated by Total, the project will have a production capacity of 10 million cubic meters of gas per day (70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day). 
OEF REVIEW:The Nikkei spoke with Takashi Tsukioka, CEO at Idemitsu Kosan, a major Japanese oil refiner, about the future direction of crude prices, the outlook for shale oil players and industry realignments in Japan.
OEF REVIEW:With a rainy day “reserve fund” of only 4.5 percent of GDP and scant access to international financial markets, Russia urgently needs a fiscal Plan B. In January, the authorities announced additional cuts amounting to about 1 percent of GDP. More important, the government will try to raise another 1.5 percent of GDP — 1 trillion rubles ($13 billion) — by privatizing state-owned firms, including “crown jewels” such as Rosneft (Russia’s largest oil company), the diamond monopoly Alrosa and the flagship airline Aeroflot.
OEF REVIEW:The jump in imports, if realised, could see China overtaking the United States as the world’s largest crude importer after China’s average crude imports hit a record 6.71 million barrels per day in 2015, up 8.8 percent from a year ago. China is expected to import 860,000 barrels per day more crude this year, Yao Li, chief executive of SIA Energy said at a Platts conference.