As some drivers hit the road for the Memorial Day weekend, they faced the sobering reality that it now costs $87 to fill a Ford Explorer SUV, up $14 from last year, and $72 to fill a mid-sized Honda Accord, up $12.
Gas prices, which took another jump overnight, are up nearly 20 percent, or 65 [...]

Duke Energy Corp. said Wednesday it plans to buy all the power generated at a massive solar power plant to be built north of Charlotte.
The Charlotte-based utility is expected to purchase more than 16 megawatts of power from SunEdison LLC, a Maryland company that is one of the nation’s leading providers of solar-produced energy. The [...]

French energy group Suez said on Friday that it had ended talks with British Energy about buying the partly-privatised group, adding that its priority was merging with state gas group GDF.
“As previously indicated, the completion of the merger with Gaz de France remains Suez’s key priority,” said a statement released to the London Stock Exchange.
“Accordingly, [...]

Universal Uranium Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Crosshair Exploration and Mining Corp. under which Crosshair will acquire all of Universal’s interest in the Central Mineral Belt (CMB) of Labrador, which totals approximately 4,737 claims. Universal and its 40% partner Silver Spruce Resources issued news releases [...]

Mengold Resources Inc. has finalized a Joint Venture Agreement with X-Ore Resources Inc. for the Greenwater Ni-PGE Property (Greenwater). Since the first announcement of this joint venture on March 3, 2008 (see news release NR-08-07), the partners have staked additional claims increasing the size of the property to 9,088 hectares (22,456 acres). This Property, located [...]

Americans getting an early start on the Memorial Day weekend found that gasoline prices again sprinted to a new record high overnight, reaching a national average above $3.83 a gallon for regular. Some analysts predict gas will surge past $4 as early as next week. It’s already above that in some places.
Oil prices fell Thursday [...]

Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. will pay competitor National Oilwell Varco Inc.’s ReedHycalog division at least $100 million to settle a patent dispute.
ReedHycalog will get $70 million for past use of patented technologies and at least $30 million for future use. Baker Hughes said ReedHycalog agreed to pay royalties on certain Baker Hughes patents, [...]

Opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas production would increase U.S. crude oil production by an additional 780,000 barrels per day by 2027, according to a government study.
The report, prepared by the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, says petroleum from the area would cut U.S. [...]

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman rejected a call by some members of Congress to release oil from the government’s emergency stockpile — the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
He said the oil is needed to respond to future supply emergencies and not to influence prices.
Bodman also said at a House hearing that he does not believe that rampant market [...]

The International Energy Agency says it is worried whether world oil supplies can meet growing demand.
The IEA’s chief economist says the organization is studying depletion rates at about 400 fields in its first study of world oil supply, and is preparing a revision of its forecasts.
Fatih Birol says the study was prompted by soaring oil [...]