General Motors officially unveiled the Volt, which according to the company can travel up to 40 miles on a single battery charge. The car will likely start production later this year. According to GM, the Volt will get city fuel economy of at least 230 miles-per-gallon, and come packaged with a flex fuel-powered engine-generator. The range of the Volt will be 300 miles, GM said.
A fragile global economic recovery will be hurt if oil prices stay at 70 USD per barrel or rise higher, according to International Energy Agency (IEA) Chief Economist Fatih Birol. The IEA advises 28 industrialised countries.
Oil prices have fallen after producers group OPEC said it now expected demand for its crude to decline further than predicted next year. Blaming the slow nature of the global economic recovery, OPEC now expects demand for its crude to average 27.97 million barrels per day in 2010.
Spain’s largest oil producer Repsol-YPF denied receiving an offer for its Argentine YPF unit following a report that Chinese companies had proposed buying its stake.
Brazil and Peru are considering five hydroelectric projects that would cost as much as 15 billion US dollars, revealed Brazilian Energy Minister Edison Lobao.
United States is prepared to provide up to 10 billion US dollars in loans to finance the development of massive hydrocarbon reserves off Brazil’s coast, revealed Brazil’s Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo da Silva.
Brazilian government controlled Petrobras entered the Chilean fuel distribution market in Chile with the inauguration Tuesday of a service station in Santiago. The company paid 400 million US dollars for US-based Exxon-Mobil’s stake in Esso Chile Petrolera and other units in the Andean nation and has targeted a 20% share of the market.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva wants the government to take control of Vale SA, according to the weekly magazine Veja. However the origin of the information was not revealed.
Nigeria has lost about 7 trillion naira (47 billion US dollars) as a result of the shut-in of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SDPC) output since 2006 in the country the Lagos based Compass newspaper reported this week.
Currently Argentina is only sending 10% of the agreed quantity of natural gas to its Andean neighbour, Chile. Faced with an energy crisis beginning to impact upon economic growth, Chile was forced to scour the globe for energy sources says Eugenio Chinchon, a Chilean business development manager specializing in renewable energy.