Monday, July 1, 2013

BP Statistical Review Reveals Biggest Annual Increase in US Oil Production, as W

GENERAL NEWS

BP?The BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2013 - the 62nd annual report - is launched today, revealing that 2012 had the largest single-year increase in US oil production ever recorded, and new evidence of the flexibility of the world?s energy system in meeting rapid global change.

?The US recorded the world?s highest growth in production of both oil and natural gas in 2012, on the back of increasing production of unconventional hydrocarbons such as tight oil, an example of the increasing diversity of energy sources as the global market continues to adapt, innovate and evolve. With rising natural gas output driving prices lower in the US, natural gas displaced coal in power generation, causing the US to experience the largest decline of coal consumption in the world.

Elsewhere, 2012 saw the largest annual decline in world nuclear output. In Japan, where nuclear power generation all but disappeared after 2011?s Fukushima accident, higher imports of fossil fuels including liquefied natural gas (LNG) ?kept the lights on?. In Europe, where gas prices were higher than in the US, power generators took the opposite course from the US, and substituted coal for gas.
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?For those of us in the energy industry, the challenges are about how we respond to the big shifts we are seeing ? a shift in demand towards emerging economies and a shift in supply towards a greater diversity of energy sources, including unconventionals,? said Bob Dudley, BP Group Chief Executive.

?The data show there is ample energy available. Our challenge as an industry is to make the best choices about where to invest. We want to provide energy in ways that enable us to be both safe and competitive ? deploying our strengths while reducing our risks, and managing our costs.?

The Review also revealed a drop in the growth of overall global energy consumption to 1.8% in 2012, down from 2.4% the previous year. This was partly as a result of the economic slowdown, but also because individuals and businesses responded to high prices by becoming more efficient in their use of energy. The emerging economies - the non-OECD countries - firmly established themselves as the source of what demand growth was seen, with China and India alone accounting for nearly 90% of the increase. Just twenty years ago, the emerging economies accounted for only 42% of global consumption; now that figure is 56%.

For a second consecutive year, oil supply disruptions in Africa and the Middle East were offset by growth among other Middle East producers, with record oil production in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. Despite these supply increases, average nominal oil prices reached another record high.

Coal remained the fastest-growing fossil fuel, with China now consuming the majority of the world?s coal for the first time?but it was also the fossil fuel that saw the weakest growth relative to its historical average.

Hydroelectric and renewable energy (along with cheap natural gas in North America) competed against coal in power generation. Global biofuels output fell for the first time since 2000 due to weakness in the US, but renewables in power generation grew by 15.2% and accounted for a record 4.7% of global power output.

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy use continued to grow in 2012, but at a slower rate than in 2011. Lower coal use helped the US reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide to 1994 levels, and EU emissions declined despite coal gaining market share from natural gas in power generation.

?2012 was yet another year of adaptation to a changing energy landscape,? said Christof R?hl, BP?s Chief Economist. ?As the non-OECD economies industrialize, they unlock ever more resources. The data tell us that the industrializing part of the world not only outpaces the OECD in terms of proved reserves growth, it also contributes its fair share to energy production.?

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Review highlights ? energy developments

  • World primary energy consumption grew by 1.8% in 2012, well below the 10-year average of 2.6%.
  • Consumption in OECD countries fell by 1.2%, led by a decline of 2.8% in the US (the world?s largest decline in volumetric terms).
  • Non-OECD consumption grew by 4.2%, below the 10-year average of 5.3%.
  • Global consumption growth was below average for all fossil fuels and nuclear power; regionally growth was below average everywhere except Africa.
  • Oil remains the world?s leading fuel, at 33.1% of global energy consumption, but oil continued to lose market share for the 13th consecutive year and its current market share is the lowest in BP?s data set, which begins in 1965.

Oil

  • Dated Brent averaged $111.67 per barrel in 2012, an increase of $0.4 per barrel from the 2011 level.
  • Global oil consumption grew by 890,000 barrels per day (b/d), or 0.9%, below the historical average.
  • Oil had the weakest global growth rate among fossil fuels for the third consecutive year. OECD consumption declined by 1.3% (530,000 b/d), the sixth decrease in the past seven years; the OECD now accounts for just 50.2% of global consumption, the smallest share on record. Outside the OECD, consumption grew by 1.4 million b/d, or 3.3%.
  • China again recorded the largest increment to global consumption growth (+470,000 b/d, +5%) although the growth rate was below the 10-year average. Japanese consumption grew by 250,000 b/d (+6.3%), the strongest growth increment since 1994.
  • Global oil production increased by 1.9 million b/d, or 2.2%. OPEC accounted for about three-quarters of the global increase despite a decline in Iranian output (-680,000 b/d) due to international sanctions. Libyan output (+1 million b/d) nearly regained all of the ground lost in 2011.
  • For a second consecutive year, output reached record levels in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. Iraq and Kuwait also registered significant increases.
  • Non-OPEC output grew by 490,000 b/d, with increases in the US (+1 million b/d), Canada, Russia and China offsetting unexpected outages in Sudan/South Sudan (down 340,000 b/d) and Syria (-160,000 b/d), as well as declines in mature provinces such as the United Kingdom and Norway.
  • US net oil imports fell by 930,000 b/d and are now 36% below their 2005 peak. Conversely, China?s net oil imports grew by 610,000 b/d.

Natural gas

  • World natural gas consumption grew by 2.2%, below the historical average of 2.7%.
  • Consumption growth was above the 10-year average in South & Central America, Africa and North America, where the US (+4.1%) recorded the largest increment in the world. In Asia, China (+9.9%) and Japan (+10.3%) were responsible for the next-largest growth increments. Globally, natural gas accounted for 23.9% of primary energy consumption.
  • Global natural gas production grew by 1.9%. The US (+4.7%) once again recorded the largest volumetric increase and remained the world?s largest producer. Norway (+12.6%), Qatar (+7.8%), and Saudi Arabia (+11.1%) also saw significant production increases, while Russia (-2.7%) had the world?s largest decline in volumetric terms.
  • Global liquefied natural gas trade declined for the first time on record (-0.9%), while pipeline trade grew weakly (+0.5%). ?

Other fuels

  • Coal consumption grew by 2.5% in 2012, well below the 10-year average of 4.4% but still the fastest-growing fossil fuel.
  • Global coal production grew by 2%, with growth in China (+3.5%) and Indonesia (+9%) offsetting a decline in the US (-7.5%). Coal reached the highest share of global primary energy consumption (29.9%) since 1970.
  • Global nuclear output fell by 6.9%, the largest decline on record for a second consecutive year; Japanese output fell by 89%, accounting for 82% of the global decline. Nuclear output accounted for 4.5% of global energy consumption, the smallest share since 1984. Hydroelectric output rose by an above-average 4.3%, with China accounting for all of the net increase.
  • Renewable energy sources saw mixed results in 2012. Global biofuels production recorded the first decline since 2000 (-0.4%), due to a decline in the US (-4.3%). In contrast, renewable energy used in power generation grew by 15.2%, slightly above the historical average.
  • Renewable forms of energy accounted for 2.4% of global energy consumption, up from 0.8% in 2002; renewables in power generation accounted for a record 4.7% of global power generation.

?


?Further enquiries:

Name: BP Press Office
Location: London
Phone: +44 (0)207 496 4076
Email:?bppress@bp.com


Source: http://www.rovworld.com/article6598.html

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'Dexter' Season 8: Will Dexter Survive The Season?

The new season of "Dexter" premieres on Sunday night, and with Season 8 confirmed as the series' final one, the question on everyone's mind is whether or not Dexter (Michael C. Hall) will make it through.

"Dexter has been playing faster and looser with the code for some time now, and I think there's some unconscious desire to reveal himself and that may manifest itself through reckless behavior," Hall told TV Guide.

Less cryptically, Jennifer Carpenter, who plays Deb, said she had a feeling Dexter wouldn't die. "At the end of the season? No," she said. "Someday? Yes, because we all do."

As for how fans will react to the finale season and Dexter's fate, EP Sara Colleton knows she won't be pleasing everyone.

"We all know that no matter what we do there are going to be a lot of people who are unhappy with it," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "We're trying to not think about that and just think of what everyone who has been on the show from the beginning feels is right and that's all we can do. No matter what we do we'll still be excoriated."

Catch the season premiere of "Dexter" on Sun., June 30 at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/30/dexter-season-8-fate_n_3526461.html

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Syrian official: War causes $15 billion in losses

In this citizen journalism image provided by Lens Young Homsi, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian standing in the rubble of a destroyed buildings from Syrian forces shelling, in the al-Hamidiyyeh neighborhood of Homs province, Syria, Thursday, June 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Lens Young Homsi)

In this citizen journalism image provided by Lens Young Homsi, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian standing in the rubble of a destroyed buildings from Syrian forces shelling, in the al-Hamidiyyeh neighborhood of Homs province, Syria, Thursday, June 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Lens Young Homsi)

This citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows anti-Syrian regime protesters holding Syrian revolution flags, during a demonstration in the neighborhood of Bustan Al-Qasr in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, June 28, 2013. Intense shelling by Syrian government troops on a village in the country's south killed several women and girls overnight as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad pushed ahead with an offensive against rebels near the border with Jordan, activists said Friday. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC)

This citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows anti-Syrian regime protesters holding a banner at Kafr Nabil town in Idlib province, northern Syria, Friday, June 28, 2013. Intense shelling by Syrian government troops on a village in the country's south killed several women and girls overnight as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad pushed ahead with an offensive against rebels near the border with Jordan, activists said Friday. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENN)

(AP) ? More than two years of fighting in Syria's civil war has damaged some 9,000 state buildings and run up $15 billion in losses to the public sector, a government minister said Sunday, shining a light on the devastating toll the crisis has taken on the country's economy.

Syria's civil war has laid waste to entire neighborhoods in the country's cities and towns, destroyed much of its manufacturing base and infrastructure and brought oil production and exports to a halt. The damage to the nation's human resources has been just as severe. More than a million people have fled the country and millions more are displaced within it. According to a U.N. estimate, more than 93,000 people have been killed.

In comments published in Syrian newspapers, Local Administration Minister Omar Al Ibrahim Ghalaounji said the $15 billion in damages to the public sector were sustained between March 2011, when the uprising against President Bashar Assad began, and March 2013. He said they were the result of "terrorist attacks on government buildings and infrastructure."

The government commonly refers to those fighting to topple the Assad regime as "terrorists."

Former Syrian Planning Minister Abdullah al-Dardari, who leads a six-member U.N. team drawing up a comprehensive postwar reconstruction plan, recently estimated the overall damage to Syria's economy at $60-$80 billion.

He told The Associated Press that Syria's economy has shrunk by about 35 percent, compared to the 6 percent annual growth Syria enjoyed in the five years before the conflict began. The economy lost almost 40 percent of its GDP, and foreign reserves have been extensively depleted, he said.

Unemployment has shot up from 500,000 before the crisis to at least 2.5 million this year, he said.

Syria's currency plunged to a record low this month following a U.S. decision to arm rebel groups. The Syrian pound currently trades around 200 to the dollar, compared with 47 before the crisis.

When the conflict began, the government had some $17 billion in foreign currency reserves. Those have dropped from blows to two main pillars of the economy: oil exports, which used to bring in up to $8 million per day, and tourism, which in 2010 earned $8 billion. U.S. and European Union bans on oil imports are estimated to cost Syria about $400 million a month.

The government did not say how much currency it has left in its reserves, but the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit estimates it at a little more than $4.5 billion.

After the currency dive, Iran ? one of Assad's strongest allies believed to have supplied his government with billions of dollars since the crisis began ? quickly stepped in, offering a $1 billion credit line to help shore up the pound.

The weak pound has triggered a hike in prices, squeezing a Syrian population already beleaguered by the fighting.

To compensate people, a presidential decree last week offered a raise for the public sector, saying it could reach up to 40 percent depending on the salary of the civil servant. Pensions could also rise by up to 25 percent, the decree said.

Many Syrians complain they can barely make ends meet.

"Living in Syria is like being in a burning hell," a Damascus resident said Sunday via Skype. He identified himself only as Abu Khaled, fearing government retribution. "It's the rising prices on the one side, the war on the other, and in between killings and kidnappings, lack of security and bombs and rockets falling on our heads and homes."

In the long-run, the economic pinch could hamper the Assad regime's ability to fund his efforts to quell the armed rebellion.

In recent weeks, however, government forces ? bolstered by an influx of fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group ? have clawed back ground lost to rebels over the past year, most importantly the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanese border.

With Qusair now in government hands, an emboldened military is seeking to retake rebellious neighborhoods in the nearby city of Homs, Syria's third largest and a flashpoint since the early days of the uprising.

On Sunday, Syrian warplanes shelled the old quarters of Homs, killing one woman and two children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and two activists who spoke to The Associated Press on Skype.

"They have wiped half the city off the map," said an activist who uses the name Abu Bilal. He and activist Tariq Badrakhan said it was the heaviest shelling of Homs since rebels seized control of parts of the city over a year ago.

Syrian forces also tried to push into the city from the Babout quarter, but fighters of the al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra pushed them back, Abu Bilal said. The activists said at least five Syrian soldiers and Hezbollah fighters were killed.

About 70 people were killed Sunday, most of them rebels and soldiers, said the Observatory.

Also Sunday, the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, the country's main opposition block, called on the international community to protect civilians in Homs.

In the northern province of Aleppo, Syrian rebels shot down a helicopter flying over the town of Kufr Nabel, sending it crashing in a fiery ball, according to activists and state media.

Seven people were killed, most of them education officials flying in exam papers, state media said.

In a video posted online, a voice can be heard shouting "God is great" as an aircraft emitting plumes of smoke is seen smashing into a plain scattered with homes. The video corresponded to other AP reporting of the events depicted.

In the town of al-Kisweh near Damascus, when a car bomb exploded near a government building, wounding 10 people, activists and state-run media said.

___

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Barbara Surk and Diaa Hadid in Beirut contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-30-Syria/id-23a9a23d94914170aabdca94f5eee345

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88% The Angels' Share

All Critics (83) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (73) | Rotten (10)

The result is a sometimes gritty, occasionally charming Highland hybrid, but the final balance feels slightly off-kilter.

Loach takes us through the mysteries of whisky making, exploring the subtle tastes and scents in ways that will have audiences wishing they had a dram at hand. But a glass also serves more symbolic purposes ...

If you want to look for it, you'll find a layer of metaphor (the distilling process as a symbol of the characters' evolution) and social-realist commentary amid the gentle, life-affirming laughs.

[Ken Loach] and his longtime screenwriter, Paul Laverty, find a good balance between drama and wacky character moments.

A fairy tale with its feet firmly on the ground.

A lark, but it's a serious-minded lark, addressing issues of class and culture, the haves and have-nots.

Ken Loach walks on the lighter side

The title, by the way, refers to the distillation process: the 2% of whisky that evaporates in the barrel is known as "the angel's share." I'm afraid there's more than 2% evaporation going on in Loach's latest.

Much like a stiff drink at the end of a long day, "The Angels' Share" gets the job done, but you're probably not going to remember it in the morning.

Loach's realism lends an easygoing, ramshackle quality to the film that smoothes over any lack of tightness.

Director Ken Loach's latest glimpse of the U.K. underclass is really two rather different movies, either of which I would've enjoyed on their own. But they don't really fit together in any satisfying or even logical way.

Whether Robbie pulls off his caper should be left for the audience to discover. But Loach's great cinematic switcheroo goes off almost without a hitch.

As heartwarming and uplifting as any tale could be that features vicious beatings and grand larceny.

While it has some likable characters, particularly its charismatic lead, it's impossible to shake the feeling that we've seen this movie before.

Lead actor Paul Brannigan, the product of Glasgow's working-class East End, is a natural.

The usual Loachian elements are all in place, but there is a gentle spirit at work here as well, and not just the alcoholic spirits around which the plot revolves.

The Angels' Share is a stellar bit of activist cinema with a light touch.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_angels_share/

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At 55, Bernhard Langer is playing some of the best golf of his career

Bernhard Langer

Angus Murray

Langer has topped the Champions Tour money list in four of the last five seasons.

You not only made the cut at this year's Masters, but were also in the mix Sunday before tying for 25th. Did you drink from the Fountain of Youth?
It was the mindset of going into the tournament not just trying to make the cut but trying to contend and be on the leaderboard and have a chance to win on Sunday. Putting decently helped.

You started Sunday's round with three straight birdies. Was there a moment when you thought, "I can win this thing!"?
You don't want to get ahead of yourself. You don't win until the 72nd hole. I've made that mistake before and I wasn't going there, so I just enjoyed the moment, and I tried to play the best round I could.

It takes a hot putter to play Augusta well. You've been playing with the long putter for more than 15 years. Do you have a contingency plan if it gets banned?
I would probably use my long putter as long as I could, and then I'd have to find another way to putt. But I see no real reason [for the ban]. If it was simpler or easier or unfair, why isn't everyone using it? Who's using the big-headed driver or a graphite shaft or a hybrid? Everyone! Why? Because it's an advantage. Who's using a long putter? Twelve percent, 15 percent. Because it's not an advantage. That's all I need to say.

You've always been up front about your struggle with the yips. How often do you think about the short putt you missed to cost Europe the 1991 Ryder Cup?
Never, really. Last year, there were a lot of highlights brought up from Kiawah, so I saw it a lot then, but now I don't think about it at all. I think I've done enough positive things to make up for that, so I can live with it, and that's the most important thing.

German Martin Kaymer said that he thought of you when he was standing over his putt to win the Ryder Cup at Medinah last year.
Yeah, I know that. I can't believe it. [Laughs] I wasn't happy when I saw his first putt [on 18] roll that far by. I was watching on TV thinking, All you have to do is two-putt from here and you win, and he knocks it six feet by. I couldn't believe he was thinking of me at that point. Not the best thing to do, but he kept his nerve and made a great stroke.

Your fellow fiftysomething player Vijay Singh successfully appealed a suspension from the PGA Tour after he admitted to using deer antler spray. Should he have been punished?
It's a tough one. I don't think he knew [the deer antler spray] was on the forbidden list, but not knowing doesn't mean you're not going to get punished, right? He probably should have checked. I was actually given some deer antler spray from the same guy that gave it to Vijay. He sent me a small bottle and I never touched it because I didn't know what it was going to do to me.

Do you think Champions Tour players might be more tempted to take performance-enhancing drugs than PGA Tour players?
I don't think anyone takes anything out here. I try to stay away from all [enhancing substances]. The body is amazingly made. It should be left alone instead of putting these chemicals in.

You recently won your 18th Champions Tour event. What's the secret to playing great golf at 55?
It's a combination of things. You need to be healthy. You still need to be driven. You need to want to be out there. You get more mature and more settled in life, and you know more about what shots you can and can't hit. I'm not going to try silly shots that I might have tried 20 years ago under pressure.

Do you ever think about retiring?
Yeah, I've been asked that for years now. It could happen. All it takes is a serious injury. But as I've always said, if I stay healthy, if I love the game, and if I have some success in it, I'll keep playing.

Source: http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/bernhard-langer-golf-magazine-interview-ryder-cup-anchored-putting

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#65 NC State Wolfpack: College football 77 in 77

NC-STATE-wolfpack

The NC State Wolfpack? More ACC college football? Yes, we usually have a whole lot of mid-majors, ACC and basketball schools ranked in the 60s and 70s every year. The NC State Wolfpack are usually down here in the 77 in 77 dregs with Syracuse, Virginia, Kentucky, Boston College, Duke, and Indiana. It?s often b-ball schools and ACC; or both.

NCSU has had some great basketball recruiting classes, but that they haven?t exactly performed like a ?basketball school? recently.

NC State Wolfpack reasons to get EXCITED ALL CAPS: They?ve been to three straight bowl games, and look like they might be a factor in the ACC Atlantic under new Coach Dave Doeren. He won with the NIU Huskies, and has a great track record. He also brought over his star Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada. The defense was at least passable, if not solid.

NC State Wolfpack reasons to get worried :( ? The run game pretty much engage in lordosis behavior for opposing defensive front sevens. There is a new signal caller to break in as well. He won?t be a Mike Glennon or Phillip Rivers type. Can Doeren and Canada game manage the uncertain and unstable QB situation?

The offense needs to learn how to run the ball and manage clock to keep that mediocre defense off the field. Only four starters return on both sides of the ball. The Pack are to ball control what Tim Beckman is to coaching too. 99th in the nation, 10th in the ACC in turnover margin.

nc st-wolfpack

NC State Wolfpack Key games: With Louisiana Tech and Richmond off the mat, they?ll be 2-0 out of the gates. Clemson in week three will be the right test. If they?re 3-1 going into Oct 5 vs Wake Forest, Syracuse the next, if they?re 5-1 heading to Florida State Oct 26th, we?ll see who?s for real or not.

NC State Wolfpack bottom line: They could be worse than their record indicates, but 5-7 to 7-5 is your scenario with a low tier bowl bid possible. They?ll pad their W-L by feasting off a weak ACC.

Key & Peele East/West College Bowl Roster: Bra?Lon Cherry, Marchez Coates, K?Hadree Hooker, Shadrach Thornton, Kenderius Whitehead

For the 2013 College Football rankings 1-77

#77 Colorado Buffaloes

#76 Kansas Jayhawks

#75 Ohio Bobcats

#74 Wake Forest Demon Deacons

#73 Syracuse Orange

#72 Boston College Eagles

#71 Kentucky Wildcats

#70 Minnesota Golden Gophers

#69 Duke Blue Devils

#68 Marshall Thundering Herd

#67 Indiana Hoosiers

#66 Virginia Cavaliers

Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net. (?Quasi-endorsed? by Philadelphia Eagles Coach Chip Kelly) He?s also an author who also contributes regularly to MSN, Fox Sports , Chicago Now, Walter Football.com and Yardbarker

Banks has appeared on the History Channel, as well as Clear Channel, ESPN and CBS radio all over the world. The NFL and NBA expert does a weekly spot for 95.7 The Fan. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@PaulMBanks), like him on Facebook

Source: http://www.thesportsbank.net/college-fball/nc-state-wolfpack-786/

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From ethnic slaughter to stability in two decades: Former war zone Croatia joins EU

Antonio Bronic / Reuters, file

A combination picture shows the old town of Mali Ston, Croatia, in 1991 and the same area, rebuilt, in 2012. The city of Dubrovnik was severely damaged due to shelling by Serb-dominated Yugoslav troops during Croatia's 1991-95 war of independence.

By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

Only 18 years after a peace deal ended violence that left the former Yugoslavia bloodsoaked and?gave birth to the term "ethnic cleansing," Croatia is to join the European Union at midnight on Sunday.

It is a major milestone for Balkan countries trying to close the door on decades of Communist rule and the horrors of civil wars that?tore apart communities along ethnic and religious lines.

But while European leaders trumpet the latest expansion of the economic bloc, celebrations may be muted in austerity-weary Croatia.

With its thousands of miles of glistening Adriatic coastline, modern highways and sidewalk cafes, Croatia looks as prosperous as its new cousins in western Europe.

That masks an economy crippled by soaring national debt, an unemployment rate of 18.1 percent and an economy heavily dependent upon tourism.

?I fear that we will become another Greece, another Cyprus,? said Vesna Mitrovic, who runs a vacation apartment near Dubrovnik ? the historic city that became trapped in a six-month siege in 1991 and is now home to the Museum of Croatia?s War of Independence.

?I signed the petition against EU membership," she said. "I think we will become a small fish in a big pond.?

However Igor Nicolic, 84, of Sibenik, a town north of Split, said he was pleased to see his country join the EU.

Yves Herman / Reuters

A miniature reproduction of Saint Mark's Church of Zagreb is inaugurated at Mini-Europe park in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday. Croatia, which applied for European Union membership in 2003, is set to become the bloc's 28th member.

?I have seen World War II, the Iron Curtain and the breakup of Yugoslavia,? he said. ?We always thought of ourselves as part of central Europe, so it is really good that we can now join the union. I think it will help with the corruption here and in the long run it will benefit all of us economically.?

He appears to be in the minority. In a poll this month by Ipsos Puls, only 7 percent of Croatians said they would be watching a fireworks display marking Monday?s occasion,?Reuters reported. Forty-two percent said such a ceremony was unnecessary.

Croatia is not the first country to join the EU from behind the ?Iron Curtain,? the Cold War divide that separated the West from the Communist countries of the Soviet Bloc. Poland and Hungary, for example, joined in 2004.

Nor is Croatia the first part of the?Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia?to join: Slovenia, whose 1991 struggle for independence lasted a few weeks and claimed only 70 lives, was admitted in 2004.

However,?Croatia is the first EU member among the protagonists in the post-1991 Balkan civil wars?that also included Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro. By the time fighting ended in Kosovo in 1999,?140,000 lives were lost and more than a million people were displaced.?

Serbia could join the EU next year, it was announced Tuesday, with Montenegro next in line - once monitoring teams approve efforts to eradicate corruption and weak public governance. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo have yet to be formally adopted as candidates.

As well as passing economic tests to join the EU, these western Balkan countries were required to comply with efforts by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to bring war criminals on all sides to justice.

Croatia?s first post-independence ruler, autocratic nationalist?President Franjo Tudjman, was facing investigation over his possible role in war crimes when he died in 1999. In 2005, Croatia took a significant step, handing over suspected war criminal Ante Gotovina ??although he was cleared at the The Hague seven years later.

Antonio Bronic / Reuters

Fisherman Danilo Latin fears Croatia's accession to the European Union on July 1, and strict new laws and regulations that come with it, may drive the last nail into his industry's coffin.

?Croatia?s membership is part of the political agenda to normalize the Balkan countries,? said Professor Iain Begg, research fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina Richard Kauzlarich called Croatia?s entrance into the EU a ?positive step? for both the country and the region as a whole.??

?I can remember the bad old days,? he said. ?Croatia experienced a great deal of loss during the war, but the West, the U.S., the EU supported Croatia?s evolution and did everything we could to encourage the kind of leadership that would be necessary to undertake the EU process.?

Now a fellow at the Brookings public policy organization, Kauzlarich said that the country had resolved a lot of issues in order to join.

?I think if there is ? a negative element out there it is that Croatia still has a significant corruption problem and they?re not going to be able to drop that because they?ve achieved this very important objective,? he added.

Croatia?s size means its accession will make more of a difference at home than across the rest of the EU. It is slightly smaller than West Virginia, and its 4.4 million citizens will represent less than one percent of the EU total.

Membership means it will qualify for Europe?s generous regional assistance programs ? equivalent to federal aid in the United States ? in which public money is spent on infrastructure projects that reduce the inequalities compared to wealthier members.

In March, the European Investment Bank?approved a $150 million loan for the expansion of the Zagreb Airport, a key link with the rest of Europe. Cultural funds will also help protect Croatia?s heritage in places like Dubrovnik.?

Not all EU citizens are happy. Germany?s Bild magazine labelled Croatia "the new graveyard for our taxpayers' money,? a reference to the Berlin-led economic bailouts necessary to prevent the total collapse of other southern European nations including Greece, Spain and Portugal.

ARCHIVAL VIDEO: TODAY's Matt Lauer profiles Croatia's past in this video which originally aired on Nov. 11, 2005.

Instead of riding high on Monday?s accession, Croatia?s Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic was forced to address those concerns, saying his country ?is not a rose garden but it is not a Greece, either.?

"My message to German taxpayers: We will cost you nothing," Milanovic said.

However, there are fears of a brain drain because EU membership also means fewer barriers to cross-border migration. A Facebook group, "Young people, let's leave Croatia" has attracted almost 60,000 likes.

"I'm happy we'll be able to seek jobs abroad and make more money," Zagreb computer science student Marko Jakic told Reuters. "But I'm also sad we can't do that in Croatia because our economy is bad and there are no jobs, even for us."

NBC News' Henry Austin and Reuters contributed to this report.

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