Brazil’s Petrobras shares surged in Wednesday trading after the company surprised investors with a 5% increase in domestic diesel wholesale prices. The latest increase helps offset investor disappointment with January's lower-than-expected jump in gasoline and diesel prices, which had pushed Petrobras's shares to a seven-year low in recent sessions.
French Akuo Energy has broken ground at two maiden wind farm developments in Uruguay totalling 92MW, as it prepares to expand its footprint across Latin America.
Russia is back. President Vladimir Putin wants the world to acknowledge that Russia remains a global power. He is making his stand in Syria. The Soviet Union acquired the Tartus Naval Port in Syria in 1971 without any real purpose for it. With their ships welcomed in Algeria, Cuba or Vietnam, Tartus was too insignificant to be developed. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia lacked the funds to spend on the base and no reason to invest in it.
Royal Dutch Shell has said that it will suspend its offshore drilling program in the Arctic for the rest of 2013 in order to give time to ensure safety. The decision to pause drilling for oil in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off Alaska was widely expected, following a catalogue of problems last year.
Spanish energy giant Repsol SA said Tuesday that it agreed to sell a package of liquefied natural gas assets to Royal Dutch Shell Plc in a transaction valued at 6.65 billion dollars. Shell will pay 4.4bn in cash and assume 2.25bn in debt, Repsol said in a regulatory filing.
GeoPark Holdings has revealed the discovery of the new Palos Quemados gas field on the Tranquilo block in Chile in the southern region of Magallanes. The Palos Quemados field is the first gas discovery in the Tranquilo Block by GeoPark and the first hydrocarbon discovery in the Magallanes Fold and Thrust Belt in more than 40 years.
The Falkland Islands government at a public meeting defended their position of not including in the annual budget what they described as ‘windfalls’ from fishing and oil and instead adding the ‘exceptional” excess revenue to the Consolidated Fund.
Member of Legislative Assembly Ian Hansen will assume responsibility for the Falklands’ government Minerals portfolio after MLA Barry Elsby relinquished the post due to a conflict of interest. The brief release from Gilbert House adds that MLA Hansen has prior experience in the Minerals portfolio adding that MLA Jan Cheek will continue as the second portfolio holder.
Colombia only has enough oil to last another eight years and must urgently step up exploration efforts to locate more reserves, Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas said.
President Evo Morales said on Thursday that Repsol and the other multinational companies operating in Bolivia should not fear nationalization since his government only appeals to that extreme when corporations think in ‘looting’ instead of investing.