A powerful category-three cyclone has formed off the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to move south or southeast, potentially threatening production at some offshore oil fields.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said on Wednesday that tropical Cyclone Pancho was located 1,208 km (750 miles) west of the Exmouth region at 4 p.m. local time and [...]

Australian oil firm AED Oil Ltd AED.AX, whose shares were hit earlier this year on claims it had overdue debt, said it was considering offers from a number of unnamed parties over the sale of some of its assets.
Trading in its shares will be halted for two days, during which it said it expects [...]

THE world’s largest untapped oil reserves - in the Canadian Arctic - have become the new front line in the battle between environmentalists and the energy industry.
Shell, a self-styled “green” energy company, is to invest billions of dollars in exploiting the Athabasca tar sands.
Environmentalists say the tar sands are the world’s dirtiest oil deposits and [...]

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Thursday it will fine four local oil companies a total of 52.6 billion won (55.9 million dollars) for fixing prices.
The Fair Trade Commission said SK, Hyundai Oilbank, GS Caltex and S-Oil colluded to raise prices for petrol, diesel and kerosene from April 1 to June 10 in 2004.
It said it [...]

Senior Energy Ministry officials, led by Minister Piyasvasti Amaranand, will pay a five-day visit to three Middle East countries this week and explore for ways to increase petroleum investment by two Thai government-run oil firms.
Mr. Piyasvasti will visit Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) February 8-12 intending to follow-up projects jointly undertaken [...]

Zambia has said it would invite tenders from oil firms to prospect new petroleum and gas fields found in the country’s north-west, adding that the successful bidders would be named soon.
Mines Minister Kalombo Mwansa said Friday the areas where the oil and gas reserves were discovered last year had been demarcated so that private firms [...]

Angola, sub-Saharan Africa’s second largest oil producer, is seeking to join the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to reap the gains of being within the cartel, the government has said.
“The council of ministers has said it backs Angola joining
OPEC,” finance ministry spokesman Bastos de Almeida told AFP Thursday.
“By joining OPEC, Angola will no longer be [...]

Nine out of almost 50 oil workers being held hostage at an oil production facility in Nigeria’s southern Niger Delta have escaped, a senior manager at the oil company Agip said on Thursday.
An Agip spokesman in Lagos said the Tebidaba flow station, located deep in the mangrove creeks of Bayelsa state, was still under occupation [...]

The Petroleum ministry has sought a Re 1 per litre excise duty cut on each litre of petrol and diesel, virtually ruling out any imminent price hike despite simmering global crude oil prices.
A letter to this effect has been written to the Finance Ministry requesting a Re 1 cut and the decision of the Finance [...]

Emboldened by high oil prices, South American countries are leading the way, but are not alone, among those seeking more cash and control from multinationals that drill in their oil and gas fields.
Consumers fear this resurgence of “resource nationalism” will slow investment, tighten supplies and keep oil prices at record highs.
But some analysts say with [...]