
Spanish oil major Repsol signed a definitive settlement agreement Thursday with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez's administration, which transferred more than 5 billion dollars in bonds as compensation for the 2012 seizure of Repsol's controlling stake in energy firm YPF.

Spain's Repsol oil and gas company says it has sold an 11.86% stake it owned in Argentina's YPF energy company to Morgan Stanley for 900 million Euros (1.25 billion dollars), effectively leaving it without a stake in a company it once controlled.

By John C.K. Daly - Amidst the deepening war of words over Moscow's annexation of Crimea, U.S. President Barack Obama on April 28 added more Russian individuals and companies to a sanctions list that already included influential members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle and Bank Rossiya, which has close ties to the Russian leadership.

Global efforts to thwart the drugs trade have failed and the time has come for a radical rethink, according to a group of Nobel-prize winning economists, a former US secretary of state, the deputy prime minister of Britain and others.

With less than 40 days remaining before the country takes center stage as host of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Brazilian hydropower power operators are facing a severe drought that makes energy rationing an increasing likelihood.

The Argentine unit of Brazilian state-controlled oil giant Petrobras has signed an agreement with the Patagonian province of Rio Negro that extends its three concessions in that region for 10 years. The new deal was inked after the company renegotiated its contractual conditions with the provincial government.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn't think the European community can do without the natural gas it gets from energy monopoly Gazprom. With a Russian economy starting to decline, however, it may be Gazprom that's too strongly interconnected to the European market to break free.

After a 16-hour debate, Argentina's Lower House passed the law to pay Spanish Repsol 5 billion dollars in bonds to compensate for the 2012 seizure of a majority stake in Argentina's energy company YPF.

A fire in the Waterport power station left most of Gibraltar without electricity on Sunday afternoon, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle. Police urged residents in the area to close their windows as thick black smoke billowed from the power station, though no one was injured in the incident.

Argentina's National Institute for Agricultural Technology (INTA) has invented a way to convert cow flatulence into usable energy, and it involves putting a plastic backpack on a cow. Livestock are responsible for a remarkable amount of global methane emissions, which are a major cause of global warming.