Energy & Oil

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:54 UTC

  Venezuela’s most populated areas suffer another major blackout

  

  Blackouts blamed on forest fires left without power whole areas of north and central Venezuela, including Caracas, officials said. The power outages began last Thursday due to the collapse of electrical lines located 250 kilometres west of Caracas, Electricity Minister Ali Rodriguez said.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:47 UTC

  Controversy in Bolivia about the true volume of proven natural gas reserves

  

  Bolivia has fallen from second to sixth place in the ranking of largest holder of proven natural gas reserves in South America, with Peru behind Venezuela as the two leading countries, admitted a Bolivian Hydrocarbons Association, or CBH, report.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:24 UTC

  Protestors force Petrobras to suspend off shore seismic surveying in New Zealand

  

  Brazilian oil giant Petrobras suspended an offshore survey Sunday in New Zealand after several environmental activists jumped into the water to block the passage of the ship conducting the study, reports the NZ press.

• Saturday, April 9th 2011 - 07:56 UTC

  Oil prices surge to a 2.5 year high on concerns about supply and the dollar

  

  Oil prices have surged to a two-and-a-half-year high on concerns about supply and a weaker dollar. Brent crude topped $126, while US crude was at $112.79.

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 22:10 UTC

  Shell moves heavily into bio-fuels from sugar cane bagasse in Brazil

  

  Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the world’s biggest distributor of bio-fuels, is shifting research to waste from sugar-cane farming after ending an algae project in Hawaii. Shell, Iogen Corp. and Codexis have been researching enzymes to produce cellulose ethanol from wheat stalks and sugar-cane bagasse, a sugar industry waste product.

• Thursday, April 7th 2011 - 08:56 UTC

  Brazil rejects as ‘unjustified’ request to halt work on a huge dam in the Amazon

  

  Brazil has said a request to halt work on its massive hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest is unjustified despite environmental concerns. Brazil's foreign ministry was responding to the request by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

• Wednesday, April 6th 2011 - 06:10 UTC

  Venezuela to begin shipping Argentina 12 million barrel of fuel in May

  

  Venezuela will send Argentina 12 million barrels of diesel and fuel oil starting in May, an official from Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA said.

• Wednesday, April 6th 2011 - 01:10 UTC

  Desire Petroleum confident of its Falklands’ portfolio prospects potential

  

  Falklands Desire Petroleum has said the past 12 months had proved an “energetic” period for the company with the information gathered leading to believe that the East Flank Play Fairway has a great deal of potential.

• Tuesday, April 5th 2011 - 09:18 UTC

  Crude at highest in 30 months pushed by US recovery and political turbulence

  

  Oil climbed to the highest level in 30 months in New York on Monday on speculation that US economic growth may support demand and a protracted conflict in Libya will curtail supply.

• Tuesday, April 5th 2011 - 09:13 UTC

  Falklands’ Sea Lion well latest oil appraisal sends Rockhopper shares soaring

  

  Shares in Falkland Islands Rockhopper Exploration soared 16% on Monday, after it raised its lowest case estimate of crude reserves at its Sea Lion well.