Energy & Oil

• Thursday, January 12th 2012 - 04:13 UTC

  Federal Reserve ‘Beige Book’ confirms US economy modest expansion

  

  The US Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that all but one of its 12 banking districts experienced modest expansion from late November through the end of the year. The survey known as the Beige Book showed that the final weeks of 2011 were among the strongest.

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:33 UTC

  Argentina imposes new restrictions to slow consumer goods’ imports

  

  Argentina will impose new restrictions on consumer goods’ imports, according to a resolution from the Revenue Office published this week in the Official Gazette and effective next February first.

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:27 UTC

  A divided EU to decide on oil embargo on Iran January 23

  

  European Union governments agreed Tuesday to bring forward a meeting of foreign ministers expected to decide on an oil embargo on Iran by one week to January 23. In its statement confirming the date, the EU said the decision to bring it forward from January 30 was taken to avoid a scheduling clash with a summit of EU leaders set for that day.

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:27 UTC

  Brazil runs the risk of becoming highly dependent on natural-resources exports

  

  A leading Brazilian economist Edmar Bacha, one of the architects behind the 1994 Plan Real to stabilize Latin America’s largest economy said the country was at risk of becoming entirely dependent on natural resources exports and urged greater savings to invest in diversification.

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:22 UTC

  Argentina says no change in Mercosur decision to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels

  

  Argentina in two brief statements said on Tuesday that there has been no change in Mercosur members’ position to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels from the region’s ports and that the United Kingdom admits that such policy has become effective.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 21:09 UTC

  Falklands’ “black gold rush” means a decade of big money, with or without oil

  

  Thirty years after the Falkland Islands conflict, the South Atlantic Islands are the focus of a “black gold rush” as a string of exploration companies seek to be the first to find commercially viable reserves in the region, writes the London Express City & Business.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 06:02 UTC

  Rockhopper ends Faklands’ 2010/11 exploration round with three oil discoveries

  

  Rockhopper Exploration announced Monday that it has completed its successful round of drillings in Falkland Islands waters with the Ocean Guardian rig.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:53 UTC

  Chavez and Ahmadinejad mock 'US imperialism' and joke about having an atomic bomb

  

  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez lavished each other with praise on Monday, mocked US disapproval and joked about having an atomic bomb at their disposal.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:48 UTC

  Brazil to build five new dams in the Amazon but with “oil-rigs” technology

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff signed the decree for the construction of five new hydroelectric dams in the Amazon basin and readies for a renewed attack from domestic and international environmentalists against the project.

• Sunday, January 8th 2012 - 05:36 UTC

  Uruguay and Argentina among the ten countries worldwide with highest inflation

  

  Inflation in Uruguay was not only far above target domestically but also figures among the ten highest in the world, and in Latam only behind Argentina and Venezuela