Business - Energy & Oil Industry

ANKARA (AFP) - European Union countries and Turkey are Monday to sign a key intergovernmental agreement on Europe's flagship Nabucco gas pipeline, coming a step closer to realizing a project that still lacks key suppliers.

LAGOS (AFP) - Nigerian militants on Friday claimed to have blown up for a second time a recently repaired oil pipeline operated by US petroleum giant Chevron.

ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigeria's main militant group says its has destroyed a recently repaired Chevron oil pipeline.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Oil closed below the psychological barrier of 60 dollars a barrel in New York Friday as the market focused on weak demand and risks of deflation amid a steep global downturn.

NEW YORK - A Connecticut businessman has been convicted of conspiring with others to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to influence government officials in Azerbaijan (ah-zur-by-JAHN').

NEW YORK - Oil prices sank below $60 a barrel Friday, ending a week in which crude has fallen more than 10 percent on growing pessimism about the economy and also the well-being of companies about to report second-quarter earnings.

ASHGABAT (AFP) - Turkmenistan is prepared to supply gas to the European pipeline project Nabucco, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said Friday in a report carried by the national news agency.

NEW YORK - Investors seem to be running short on hope.

DENVER - U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is moving ahead with her bill to put a widely used oil and gas drilling process under federal oversight while also seeking a study to gather more data on the practice.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 fell on Friday, dropping for the fourth straight week, after Chevron Corp warned about its quarterly results and consumer confidence fell to it lowest level since March.

VIENNA - Oil prices slid well below $60 a barrel Friday as investors braced for company earnings reports next week that will provide clues on the strength of crude demand.

LONDON (AFP) - The price of goods leaving factories fell in June at the fastest 12-month rate for almost eight years as oil prices slumped, official data showed Friday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Global oil demand will rebound 1.7 percent next year, led by rising consumption in emerging economies as the developed world recovers from recession, the International Energy Agency said on Friday.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Chevron Corp warned that second-quarter earnings would be hit by a sharp decline in U.S. refining margins and that any benefits from higher oil prices were largely offset by a weaker dollar, sending its shares down 1.8 percent.

PHILADELPHIA - Sunoco Inc. said Thursday it has placed four employees on administrative leave after an internal investigation into the bidding for a crude oil processing transaction found that they violated company policy.

HOUSTON - Chevron Corp. said Thursday its second-quarter earnings from pumping oil will be improved from the first three months of the year, when low crude and natural-gas prices contributed to the worst results in years for oil companies.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose slightly on Thursday as talk of refinery shutdowns spurred stirred gasoline supply concerns, ending a six-day slide.

JOHANNESBURG - A human rights group said Thursday that government officials in tiny Equatorial Guinea have used tens of millions of dollars in oil profits to buy lavish homes, cars and vacations while leaving citizens in miserable poverty.