Business - Energy & Oil Industry

COTONOU (AFP) - Pirates attacked an oil tanker off the coast of west Africa, killing a Ukrainian officer before escaping with the contents of the ship's safe, the ship's owners and Benin's navy commander said Tuesday. Full Story »

HARTFORD, Conn. - WSP Holdings Inc., a Chinese manufacturer of oil and natural gas exploration and drilling products, posted a third-quarter loss — its first — on lower demand and prices due to the global recession. Full Story »

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Exports of Iraqi oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan were interrupted because of sabotage against a pipeline in northern Iraq, the oil ministry said on Tuesday. Full Story »

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Growing world oil use will likely outpace the rate of new supplies in 2010, eroding the huge stockpiles of crude which have mounted around the world since the start of the global economic crisis. Full Story »

COTONOU (AFP) - Pirates attacked an oil tanker off the coast of west Africa, killing a Ukrainian seaman, the commander of Benin's naval forces told AFP Tuesday. Full Story »

SARASOTA, Fla. - Roper Industries Inc., which makes products for water and energy companies, said Monday it has increased its quarterly cash dividend by 15 percent to 9.5 cents. Full Story »

HOUSTON - Oil services company BJ Services Co. said Monday it posted a fiscal fourth-quarter loss as drilling plunged. Full Story »

NEW YORK - Anadarko Petroleum Corp. on Monday said success from an exploration well drilled offshore Brazil signals better potential for an area that could become the company's "next mega project." Full Story »

NEW YORK - Shares of Newfield Exploration Co. could gain from increasing exposure to oil resources, an analyst said Monday as he upgraded the stock. Full Story »

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. - A newly reopened Niagara Falls manufacturing plant will use hydropower to make products for the solar industry. Full Story »

SHANGHAI - Praxair Inc.'s Chinese unit has signed a multiyear agreement to sell gases that MAGI Solar Energy Technology Co. will use to make solar cells and modules, Praxair announced Monday. Full Story »

GENEVA - Greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere reached record highs in 2008, with carbon dioxide levels increasing faster than previously, the U.N. weather agency said Monday. Full Story »

A glance at the Birdbear, an oil-bearing formation geologists say could expand horizontal drilling in North Dakota. Full Story »

BISMARCK, N.D. - A crude-bearing cache known as the Birdbear, beneath North Dakota's already booming oil patch, can be tapped using new technology that would expand horizontal drilling to parts of the state that have never seen it, geologists believe. Full Story »

LONDON - British oil exploration company Heritage Oil PLC said Monday it has agreed to sell its stakes in two Ugandan fields to Italy's Eni SpA for up to $1.5 billion. Full Story »

ARTOIS, Calif. - An oil boom is under way in California's agricultural heartland, as evolving tastes and a trend toward healthy fare have transformed a profession as old as civilization: olive production for the extra virgin market. Full Story »

VIENNA (AFP) - Austria has begun talks with Russia in view of joining Moscow's South Stream gas pipeline project, Austrian newspapers reported on Saturday. Full Story »

DIMOCK, Pa. - Pat Farnelli says there's something in the water at her house. The last time she drank it, she says she vomited four times. It's made her children sick, too. Full Story »