Energy & Oil

• Thursday, December 18th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Oil hovers near $40 despite record OPEC cut

  

  U.S. crude hovered near $40 a barrel on Thursday, around its lowest price since July 2004, amid doubts in OPEC's ability to curb output quickly after the group announced record production cuts.

• Wednesday, December 17th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile helps Paraguay crack neighbours' “energy siege”

  

  Energy rich Paraguay and Chile reached an agreement for the supply of electricity which will transmitted through Argentine territory and at “a considerable higher value than that paid by Brazil”.

• Wednesday, December 17th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Oil markets more focused on mounting reserves than OPEC

  

  OPEC announced Wednesday an unprecedented production cut of 2.2 million barrels a day in an effort to shore up the price of crude. It's the biggest production cut in the history of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries which pumps more than a third of the world's daily crude supply.

• Monday, December 15th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Nicaragua is a “family dictatorship” claims former minister

  

  The Nicaraguan administration of President Daniel Ortega “is not left-leaning or Sandinista or revolutionary, it's imply a family dictatorship”, said Ernesto Cardenal, a Catholic priest and one of the country's most renowned poets.

• Monday, December 15th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  BHP Billiton oil survey vessel on its way to Falklands

  

  The Falkland Islands are expecting the arrival in mid-January of the brand new Fugro Saltire a survey, construction support and intervention vessel, built earlier this year, which is to carry out seabed surveys for BHP Billiton.

• Thursday, December 11th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  YPF, Pan American, Petrobras to explore Malvinas basin

  

  Argentina's YPF, Brazil's Petrobras and Pan American Energy signed several agreements for the joint oil and gas exploration offshore in the San Jorge Gulf, the Malvinas basin and along the South Atlantic coastline, according to a report released Wednesday in Buenos Aires.

• Thursday, December 11th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  US numbers deeper in the red in spite of falling oil prices

  

  The US trade deficit unexpectedly grew in October, despite falling oil prices, according to Commerce Department data released this week. The trade deficit rose to 57.2bn, which was an increase of 1.1% from September's figure.

• Thursday, December 11th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Global oil demand forecasted to drop, first time since 1983

  

  Global oil demand will contract this year for the first time since 1983 shrinking by 200.000 barrels per day, with the total revised down to 85.8 million barrels per day according to the monthly report from the International Energy Agency.

• Sunday, December 7th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Successful testing of natural gas strike in Chilean Patagonia

  

  Latinamerican oil and gas exploration and production company GeoPark Holdings Limited reported the successful testing of a natural gas well in Magallanes region, extreme south of Chile, with an initial output of 1.300 barrels of oil per day equivalent, boepd.

• Thursday, December 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Open letter to Argentines from new UK ambassador

  

  The new British ambassador in Argentina presented her credentials on Wednesday to Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Taiana and simultaneously published an open letter in the embassy's site saying how privileged she was to be in Buenos Aires underscoring the many coincidences between UK and Argentina. Her message included an implicit message on Falklands “there are differences of policy and opinion between the UK and Argentina on some important matters”.