
A Chilean-Peruvian consortium plans to invest 650 million USD in a project to produce ammonium and ammonium nitrate from natural gas, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said Wednesday.

The Ecuadorian government has decided to suspend oil production by Italy's Agip and France's Perenco, both of which operate in the Amazon region, to comply with new OPEC cuts.

Brazil will temporarily shut down power plants fired by natural gas from Bolivia and will reduce imports of the Bolivian fuel through the end of April, announced Mines and Energy mister Edison Lobao.

Brazilian state oil company Petrobras exported in December an average of 620,000 barrels of crude per day, establishing a new record.

Six companies to date have purchased data packages for Uruguay's first offshore Exploration and Production round, mining and energy minister Daniel Martínez said after making a presentation at an energy conference in Santiago de Chile.

Chile's Lower House unanimously approved this week the naming of a special committee to investigate the financial performance of government owned hydrocarbons corporation ENAP, that suffered huge losses in 2008, and gas exploration projects in Tierra del Fuego which have been described as commercially non viable.

Argentina appointed a supervisor to help oversee pipeline operator Transportadora de Gas del Norte SA, TGN, after the company said it will default on 22.1 million US dollars debt, Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido announced Monday.

The price of petrol has reached a three-year low in the United Kingdom, according to the Automobile Association and reported in the London press. The average cost of petrol at the beginning of this week was 87.79p a litre compared with 88.27p at the end of December 2005.
Spanish bank La Caixa is no longer in talks with Russia's LUKOIL to sell all or part of its 12.7% stake in oil firm Repsol, it announced on Monday in a one paragraph stock exchange announcement.
Brazil's giant oil and gas corporation Petrobras has plans to open next year its first service stations in Japan to promote the distribution of ethanol, of which Brazil is the world's second leading producer, according to a report from O Estado de Sao Paulo. Petrobras already operates an oil refinery in Japan.