Energy & Oil

• Saturday, October 31st 2009 - 07:03 UTC

  Venezuela/Brazil agree terms of refinery to be built in Pernambuco

  

  Brazil's government managed oil company Petrobras said on Friday that it had concluded a deal with Venezuela's PDVSA to construct and operate a refinery in northeast Brazil.

• Friday, October 30th 2009 - 07:35 UTC

  Cuba’s Sugarcane Ethanol Potential: the Return of King Sugar

  

  “Central America and the Caribbean, historical sugar-producing economies where the sugar-ethanol infrastructure already has a foundation, labor costs are low, and the political conditions are more or less stable– offers the best near-term potential for large-scale sugarcane ethanol production. This is a market opportunity which Cuba, with the longest experience of sugar–ethanol and sugarcane derivates production in the region, is positioned to take advantage of”.

• Friday, October 30th 2009 - 00:46 UTC

  Shell reports sharp fall in quarterly profit with outlook “very uncertain”

  

  Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell reported Thursday its quarterly profit fell sharply, and warns the outlook remains “very uncertain”. The company said profit for the three months to September fell 73% to 3 billion US dollars from a year earlier. “We are not expecting a quick recovery,” Shell chief executive Peter Voser said.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 10:16 UTC

  UK petrol prices at their highest level of the year

  

  Petrol prices in the United Kingdom are now at their highest level of the year, according to the AA. Average UK prices at the pumps are now 107.14p a litre - beating the previous 2009 high of 107.03p a litre on September 9.

• Tuesday, October 27th 2009 - 07:42 UTC

  ING group to split banking and life insurance operations

  

  Dutch ING Group on Monday announced that it will move towards a complete separation of its banking and life insurance operations. ING which was bailed out by the Dutch government said it would dispose of its insurance operations over the next four years and raising 7.5 billion Euros in a rights issue.

• Tuesday, October 27th 2009 - 07:27 UTC

  Rockhopper raises £ 50 million to finance summer drilling offshore Falklands

  

  Rockhopper Exploration, the oil and gas explorer company working in the North Falkland Basin has raised £50 million in a 54p per share placing with institutional investors.

• Monday, October 26th 2009 - 12:51 UTC

  Brazil to increase diesel bio-fuel content to 5% next January

  

  Brazil will raise the bio-fuel content of its diesel to 5% up from 4% previously, after President Lula da Silva approved the proposal on Friday.

• Saturday, October 24th 2009 - 07:19 UTC

  Paraguayan congress approves Itaipú treaty with Brazil

  

  The Paraguayan Senate approved by an ample majority the agreement with Brazil which represents a higher financial compensation for Paraguay from Itaipú, the world’s largest operational hydroelectric dam, a long standing claim which was addressed in several summits between presidents Lula da Silva and Fernando Lugo.

• Saturday, October 24th 2009 - 05:54 UTC

  Petrobras sells 4 billion US dollars in 2020 and 2040 bonds

  

  Brazilian oil giant Petrobras on Friday launched 2.5 billion US dollars of 2020 bonds and 1.5 billion USD of 2040 bonds, in what might be the largest ever sale of corporate debt by a Brazilian company.

• Friday, October 23rd 2009 - 08:38 UTC

  Uruguay: risk contract with US company to explore for natural gas onshore

  

  Uruguay signed on Friday the first risk contract for the exploration of hydrocarbons in the north of the country, the first ever of its kind. US company Schuepbach Energy from Dallas will be looking for possible traces of natural gas in lutite sedimentary rocks during a two year period in an area of 10.000 square kilometres.