
Atomic power agencies from Brazil and Argentina signed an agreement to build two nuclear reactors for research and production of radioisotopes, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT).

Spains’s Repsol SA said on Thursday its first-quarter profit jumped 38% on the year, mainly due to higher production and refining margins.

President Nicolas Maduro promised his Uruguayan counterpart Jose Mujica a “permanent” supply of petroleum from oil-rich Venezuela during the first leg of his visit to Mercosur member countries. Maduro also announced the signing of a strategic alliance in the energy sector with Uruguay.

Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras found good quality oil in a sub-salt area of the offshore Santos Basin, one of the world's most promising oil frontiers, according to a securities filing by Petrobras on Tuesday.

For some, the prospect of the Falkland Islands becoming an oil-producing country creates exciting visions of opportunity, while for others it seems like a nightmare. What is certain is that oil, like sheep and fishing before it, will inevitably bring changes to both our wealth and our way of life.

Argentine nationalized energy company YPF warned on Tuesday that inflation in the country may keep rising and affect its results, a rare admission considering the company is controlled by a government known for playing down the problem.

Almost four million barrels of diesel and gasoline were shipped from Europe and the US to Argentina where a recent major fire in the country’s main refinery significantly diminished the supply of refined produce. The situation could extend for another two years, according to private estimates from the oil industry.

Argentina's natural gas imports rose 74% to 28.4 million cubic meters/d in March, compared with 16.3 million cu m/d in the year-earlier period, the country’s Energy Secretariat said Monday. Imports were up 16% compared with 24.5 million cu m/d in February, according to a monthly data report.

Brazil’s Petrobras is selling its 20% stake in the Gila prospect in the US Gulf of Mexico as part of its ongoing divestment program. The state-owned company said it had signed a sale and purchase agreement for the sale of its equity in exploration blocks KC 49, 50, 92, 93, 94 and 138, which make up the BP-operated asset.

By John C.K. Daly of Oilprice.com - Twenty-plus years on, the collapse of the USSR in 1991 threatened massive Western defence budgets, bereft of a major enemy like the “Evil Empire.”