Last year a Dutch study found that draining Indonesian swamps to make way for oil-palm plantations resulted in 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions for each tonne of palm oil produced, by speeding up the decomposition of the peaty soil.

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The U.S. and EU have implemented progressively tougher economic sanctions on Iran in recent months, including an embargo on Tehran's oil exports, which Washington and Brussels believe are increasingly draining the government's finances.

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Alabama argued that Exxon Mobil owed the state royalties on the gross made from 13 natural gas wells that Exxon started draining in 1993, well before it merged with Mobil Oil.

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As in the Gulf, the oil deposits were created during a period of flourishing plant life 80 million years ago, when rivers draining Africa and South America dumped sediments into the narrow and shallow sea then separating the two continents.

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