Energy & Oil

• Tuesday, July 27th 2010 - 23:46 UTC

  Argos Resources raised £ 22 million for hydrocarbons exploration in Falklands

  

  Argos Resources with exploration licences in the North Falkland Basin expects its shares to be admitted to trading on AIM on Thursday 29 July. Argos Resources has raised £22 million (£20.6 million net of costs) in a placing of new ordinary shares at 31 pence per share which will give the company a market capitalisation of £67 million.

• Tuesday, July 27th 2010 - 20:20 UTC

  Ecuador moves to increase state control over the oil industry

  

  OPEC member Ecuador says it will start renegotiating contracts with private oil companies as it moves to increase state control over the sector. Under the new hydrocarbons law, the current production-sharing agreements will be replaced by a flat fee.

• Friday, July 23rd 2010 - 22:39 UTC

  Rockhopper spuds second well in Falklands North Basin

  

  Rockhopper Exploration (AIM: RKH) announced that on Friday early morning it had spudded Ernest 26/6-1 exploration well in the North Falkland Basin, the second well the British company is drilling following the successful discovery of oil in its Sea Lion prospect.

• Thursday, July 22nd 2010 - 23:36 UTC

  Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay consider building 2.000 kilometres gas pipeline

  

  Natural gas-rich Bolivia has invited Paraguay and Uruguay to confirm sufficient demand to justify the building of a commercially viable 2.000 kilometres pipeline linking with Asunción and Montevideo.

• Thursday, July 22nd 2010 - 09:02 UTC

  Falklands’ oil exploration continues with Rockhopper ready to drill second well

  

  Rockhopper Exploration the only company so far to have announced the discovery of oil in Falklands’ waters is preparing to spud its second well in the North Falkland basin, the company announced in a release.

• Thursday, July 22nd 2010 - 02:31 UTC

  Mercosur driving the strong recovery in Latam and Caribbean, says UN

  

  Latin America and the Caribbean is consolidating its recovery from the global economic slowdown, posting higher-than-expected growth in recent months. Although some countries in the region face serious pitfalls, according to a new United Nations report, Mercosur stands out as driving the revival.

• Wednesday, July 21st 2010 - 06:59 UTC

  Argentine only has natural gas reserves for the next seven years

  

  Argentina’ natural gas reserves dropped to half their 2000 level when they totalled 378.862 million cubic metres, which means at the current consumption rate in seven and a half years the country will ran out of the vital fuel, according to a report released this week in Buenos Aires.

• Wednesday, July 21st 2010 - 05:49 UTC

  BP sells assets in US, Canada and Egypt to pay clean up bill

  

  British Petroleum is to sell assets in Texas, Canada and Egypt, to part-fund the clean-up cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The oil giant said it had reached a 7 billion US dollars deal with US-based oil production firm Apache Corp.

• Saturday, July 17th 2010 - 07:01 UTC

  Bolivia confirms pipeline to supply Paraguay and Uruguay with natural gas

  

  Hydrocarbons minister Fernando Vincenti confirmed that Bolivia is interested in extending its natural gas pipeline network to add Paraguay and Uruguay to its list of clients now limited to Mercosur main associates, Brazil and Argentina.

• Friday, July 16th 2010 - 19:41 UTC

  Colombia joins race to become energy independent by 2020

  

  Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol said it expects to produce 1.3 million barrels per day of “clean” oil equivalent by 2020 and that some 80 billion US dollars in investment will be needed to meet the target.