The US dollar tumbled to yet another new low against the Euro and oil prices rose to a record 92 US dollars per barrel on fears over supplies for the northern hemisphere winter months ahead.

Petroleos Mexicanos, Pemex, state-owned oil monopoly, said at least 10 workers were killed when an oil rig hit a drilling platform during a storm this week in the Gulf of Mexico, and 18 are still missing or in lifeboats.

Ecuadorian Energy Minister Galo Chiriboga said on Tuesday the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had accepted Ecuador back as an active member following fifteen years of absence.

China is en route to become the world's second largest consumer market by 2015 following unprecedented growth several times faster than in developed countries during the last four decades, according to a report released by Boston Consulting Group.

The influence of Sovereign Wealth Funds, SWF, on global financial markets is set to grow as the world economy shifts to emerging economies, and Western countries should seize the opportunity to find common ground rules and a code of practice, recommends a report on SWF from Standard Chartered Bank.

Plans to search for oil and natural gas in Brazil's remote western Amazon have raised concerns that one of the last untouched areas of the world's largest wilderness will be spoiled.

Bolivia may delay ramping up natural gas exports to Argentina by a year while it increases production to meet its contractual commitments, the country's energy minister announced this week.

China's main oil coporation, government owned PetroChina Co. Ltd. shot past giant General Electric Co. to become the world's second-largest company. After its stock rose 13% on hopes of big new oil discoveries, the company's market value reached more than 430 billion US dollars, second only to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s 518 billion.

As oil prices hit new records the cartel of oil exporting countries promised Tuesday to respond to any supply disruption but also expressed concern about the rising prices which it attributes largely to market speculations.

Crude oil traded on Monday in New York above 86 US dollars a barrel on concern oil shipments may be disrupted if Turkish forces pursue Kurdish militants in Iraq.