
Houston based Noble Energy which also has interests in the Falkland Islands oil industry announced this week that the Tamar natural gas field offshore Israel has been successfully brought online with all five of the sub-sea wells now producing at stable rates totalling approximately 300 million cubic feet per day.

By Jen Alic - The first gas has started flowing from Israel's super-giant Tamar gas-field in the Levant Basin. Where it will go will redraw the Mediterranean energy map and the geopolitics that goes along with it.

President Jose Mujica confirmed that the project for the construction of a liquid gas re-gasification plant in the River Plate coast, originally planned with Argentina, “will go ahead with of without the Argentine government”.

Latinamerica’s largest power company Eletrobras, managed by the Brazilian government reported losses equivalent to 3.4bn dollars last year which were mostly attributed to a bill promoted by the administration of President Dilma Rousseff ro reduce electricity bills both for industry, agriculture and home consumption.

Argentina’s nationalized energy company YPF on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with the local subsidiary of the US Dow Chemical to develop the shale gas deposits in the southern Nequen province.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will attend this week's BRICS summit of five emerging powers hosted by South Africa to discuss creation of their own development bank, the Planalto office announced.

Lawmakers from Argentina and the UK attending the 128th Inter-parliamentarian Union assembly held in Ecuador have been holding intense but ‘respectful’ discussions about the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty dispute.

By Jen Alic of Oilprice.com - Cyprus is preparing for total financial collapse as the European Central Bank turns its back on the island after its parliament rejected a scheme to make Cypriot citizens pay a levy on savings deposits in return for a share in potential gas futures to fund a bailout.

Argentina’s energy self-sufficiency can be expected in five to six years said Miguel Galuccio, CEO of YPF, the oil and gas corporation which was nationalized a year ago when the government of President Cristina Fernandez seized a 51% majority from Spain’s Repsol.

Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras has unveiled its business plan for the 2013-2017 period projecting investment of 236.7 billion dollars and maintaining its goal of raising crude-oil output from 2 million barrels per day in 2012 to 4.2 million bpd in 2020.