Ratings // News

The former superpower Russia will suffer another downsizing this weekend, and at President Dmitry Medvedev's initiative, no less.

China's state-owned Sinopec plans to buy ConocoPhillips' stake in the huge Syncrude project in Canada's oil sands for $4.65 billion, marking one of the Asian country's largest investments ever in North America.

A powerful blast hit an oil tanker carrying supplies for NATO forces in Pakistan's northwestern region bordering Afghanistan Monday, a media report said.

China and the United States pledged to form a task force to enhance cooperation on energy data such as consumption and inventory statistics to improve transparency in a volatile market.

Tariffs for gas will rise 15 percent in Russia in 2011, while thermal heating tariffs will rise 12 to 14 percent.

A Policy analyst at IMANI Ghana is questioning the reasonableness of an agreement which will see 20 years of Ghana's oil proceeds mortgaged for affordable houses to be built by South Korean construction firm, STX.

Following a recent directive from the Presidency, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is to resume oil exploration in the Chad Basin and other areas classified as Frontier Inland Sedimentary Basins.

The Belarusian Ambassador to Iran has declared his country’s readiness to buy Iranian oil regardless of the project to produce oil at Iranian Jofeir field.

The Energy Ministry is seeking a record price of 60 billion rubles ($2 billion) to develop the Trebs and Titov oil fields, and the government looks determined to get as much as it possibly can from oil companies for the massive deposits.

The Vyborg Shipyard has stopped plans to build a new shipyard in Primorsk, General Director Valery Levchenko said yesterday. The new shipyard was to specialize in construction of LNG tankers from Russian offshore fields, first of all from Shtokman.

Climate summit loophole lets palm oil producers cull vital wilderness.

Brazil's state-run oil and gas giant Petrobras said Thursday it has discovered oil in the Campos Basin off Brazil's southeastern coast.

Cnooc Ltd. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. are considering bidding for a Devon Energy Corp. stake in an Azerbaijan oil field that may fetch as much as $3 billion.

Norwegian driller Songa Offshore said its semi-submersible rig Songa Mercur has won a a contract with Gazprom unit Gazflot for exploration work off Sakhalin Island later this year.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday ordered Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to investigate a fatal car crash involving a LUKoil vice president that caused public outrage over a perceived police cover-up.

Norwegian company Songa Floating Production has filed for bankruptcy due to it unsuccessful efforts to raise finance to service its debts.

Russian Railways, or RZD, is planning to sell seven-year dollar bonds, its first foreign-currency offering and the longest maturity by a Russian company outside the energy sector in almost two years.

The Interior Department is ready to announce its analysis and review of defects in a program covering lease sales off much of Alaska's coastline, including Arctic waters, according to a legal filing Tuesday.

Anglo Dutch major Shell has started its 2010 exploration drilling campaign off Western Australia comprising three firm wells.

ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson says President Barack Obama made the right call in putting a moratorium on new Gulf of Mexico oil leasing in the wake of the BP disaster.