
One of the world's biggest oil producers has sought global PR expertise as it expands a controversial deep sea offshore sub-salt drilling program.

The world's largest wind turbine company, Denmark’s Vestas, last week announced it will be investing in the Talinay Oriente wind farm project in northern Chile, a project it says will become Latin America's largest wind farm.

The first well to be drilled at the south of the Falkland Islands proved to be a disappointment, Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd, FOGL, officially announced to the London Stock Exchange.

A fifth UK company plans to drill for oil off the Falkland Islands after it raises £70m in a London stock market listing, reports the Financial Times. Argos Resources, which holds licences next to the landmark 250m-barrel Falklands’ oil discovery made by peer Rockhopper Exploration in May, hopes to achieve a £200m value on AIM.

Latin American oil and gas exploration and production company GeoPark Holdings (AIM: GPK) revealed this week new gas and oil finds on the Fell block in the extreme south of Chile.

FOGL had been expecting to announce preliminary results of the well during this week; however, there have been some further delays due to some minor operational issues and weather related downtime.

Rockhopper Exploration one of the four companies operating with Falkland Islands government licences reported last Friday that samples from its recent discovery on the Sea Lion prospect in the North Falkland basin have been confirmed as medium grade crude.

China National Offshore Oil Corp., the country’s third-largest oil and gas company, declined to comment on reports it is holding talks to buy as much as 9 billion US dollars of BP Plc’s assets in South America.

The bill governing the capitalization of Brazilian energy giant Petrobras was approved Wednesday by President Lula da Silva. It is the first step to establish the new regulatory framework for exploiting crude oil under the pre-salt layer of the continental seabed of Brazil.

Towards the end of the year Argentina’s YPF in association with Pan American Energy and Petrobras will begin exploring for oil in the Malvinas basin, following the contract for an oil rig which has been signed, according to oil industry sources in Buenos Aires.