Economist Jeffrey Sachs said the U.S. and European Union should reconsider their emphasis on biofuels made from crops grown on land that had previously been used to produce food. Speaking to reporters before an address to EU lawmakers, Sachs said targets to produce more such fuels “do not make sense now in a global food [...]

European oil groups Royal Dutch Shell and Repsol YPF are under pressure from the United States to end talks with Iran about a multi-billion dollar natural gas deal, the Expansion newspaper reported Saturday.
It said that Russia’s Gazprom, Indian Oil Corporation and Chinese groups could be waiting to move in if British-Dutch group Shell and Spain’s [...]

Whiting Petroleum Corporation announced the promotion of Chuck LaCouture to Vice President-Marketing of Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation, its wholly owned operating subsidiary, effective immediately. Mr. LaCouture joined Whiting in January 2002 as Manager-Marketing and Business Development. Previously, he was with Whiting’s former parent company, Alliant Energy, in a similar position beginning in February [...]

The Federal Trade Commission plans to come up with rules by the end of the year to enforce a new law against price manipulation and deception in oil-trading markets.
The FTC announced that has taken the first step, seeking public comments, toward developing a regulation on oil industry price manipulation.
As part of a broad energy bill [...]

The government has agreed to grant a demand from mining company Rio Tinto for a fixed-rate tax facility for its US$3 billion nickel project in Sulawesi, providing leeway for other mining giants to receive similar privileges.
Chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board Muhammad Luthfi told reporters Monday the government had agreed to provide the company with [...]

A new arrangement in the mining bill which limits land for mining use may not spook potential mining investors, as long as the government provides legal certainty for the future of operations, an association says.
Indonesian Mining Association (IMA) executive director Priyo Pribadi Soemarno told The Jakarta Post on Monday that investors should not see the [...]

Indonesia plans to limit the area that metal and coal miners can explore to prevent domination by a few companies, a legislator said on Monday, a move analysts said could hurt already poor levels of investment.
Indonesia has some of the world’s largest deposits of coal, copper, tin, nickel and gold, and is keen to earn [...]

East Delta Resources Corp. announced today that its majority owned subsidiary, Sino-Canadian Metals Inc. has completed construction of a metals processing plant that produces a nickel-copper aggregate from ore supplied by local mines.
The facility, owned by Sino-Canadian through its Joint Venture in China, is located in Qinghai Province and has been in development for over [...]