
Foster Wheeler AG (Nasdaq: FWLT) announced Wednesday that its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded an owner’s engineer contract for a new LNG receiving terminal (the “GNL Del Plata” facility) to be built in Uruguay’s capital Montevideo.

State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA earnings reached 4.49 billion US dollars in 2009, down from 9.41 billion in 2008, Energy and Petroleum Minister Rafael Ramirez revealed this week. Speaking at PDVSA headquarters in Caracas, he cited the “global capitalist crisis” as a major factor in the sharp fall in net income.

In light of recent problems with Chile’s electrical system Energy Minister Ricardo Raineri announced this week plans to overhaul the control centre of the interconnected power grid, on which the majority of Chile’s electricity is run.

Argos Resources with exploration licences in the North Falkland Basin expects its shares to be admitted to trading on AIM on Thursday 29 July. Argos Resources has raised £22 million (£20.6 million net of costs) in a placing of new ordinary shares at 31 pence per share which will give the company a market capitalisation of £67 million.

OPEC member Ecuador says it will start renegotiating contracts with private oil companies as it moves to increase state control over the sector. Under the new hydrocarbons law, the current production-sharing agreements will be replaced by a flat fee.

Rockhopper Exploration (AIM: RKH) announced that on Friday early morning it had spudded Ernest 26/6-1 exploration well in the North Falkland Basin, the second well the British company is drilling following the successful discovery of oil in its Sea Lion prospect.

Natural gas-rich Bolivia has invited Paraguay and Uruguay to confirm sufficient demand to justify the building of a commercially viable 2.000 kilometres pipeline linking with Asunción and Montevideo.

Rockhopper Exploration the only company so far to have announced the discovery of oil in Falklands’ waters is preparing to spud its second well in the North Falkland basin, the company announced in a release.

Latin America and the Caribbean is consolidating its recovery from the global economic slowdown, posting higher-than-expected growth in recent months. Although some countries in the region face serious pitfalls, according to a new United Nations report, Mercosur stands out as driving the revival.

Argentina’ natural gas reserves dropped to half their 2000 level when they totalled 378.862 million cubic metres, which means at the current consumption rate in seven and a half years the country will ran out of the vital fuel, according to a report released this week in Buenos Aires.