Energy News

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The energy ministers of nine European Union nations on Monday signed a deal to develop a massive offshore wind power grid in the North Sea and Irish Sea, as UN climate talks got underway in Copenhagen. Full Story »

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, is planning to set up a greenfield refinery in Nigeria, Oil Minister Murli Deora told reporters on Monday. Full Story »

CARACAS (Reuters) - A senior minister and close confidant of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez resigned on Sunday in a scandal that has shaken the OPEC nation's banks and triggered a purge of businessmen with ties to the government. Full Story »

CAIRO (AFP) - Divisions within OPEC have eased as the dual threat of the global economic crisis and climate change talks force oil producers to be pragmatic and unified, analysts said on Sunday. Full Story »

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia has welcomed a 90 billion dollar (82 billion US) deal to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a Japanese power company in what is believed to be the country's biggest export sales contract. Full Story »

CAIRO (AFP) - Arab oil ministers of OPEC said on Friday that the cartel should keep production unchanged when it meets later this month as crude prices are close to the target of 80 dollars a barrel. Full Story »

CAIRO (AFP) - Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Friday that OPEC should not raise its production quota at a meeting later this month as the current oil price is "close to the target." Full Story »

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan plans to boost its use of solar panels by a factor of 200 over the next decade and a half in an effort to increase clean energy, a ranking official said Friday. Full Story »

GENEVA (AFP) - The prototype of Solar Impulse, a pioneering Swiss bid to fly around the world on solar power, briefly took off for the first time on Thursday but under battery power, the organisers said. Full Story »

CHANGZHOU, China (AFP) - In Trina Solar's brilliant white factory in eastern China, masked workers in lab coats turn silicon wafers into solar power cells capable of harnessing the sun's clean and limitless energy. Full Story »

Space solar power advocates may soon get their day in the sun, as different projects aimed at beaming energy to Earth from orbit begin to take shape. But at least one space power scientist worries that a U.S.-based project may be promising too much, too soon. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - BP Plc discovered an oil and gas spill on a pipeline that serves the giant Prudhoe Bay oil fields in Alaska over the weekend, a company spokesman said on Monday. Full Story »

SEOUL (Reuters) - Tata Group is planning to produce hybrid versions of its Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, to join in the environment-friendly trend, its chairman said in an interview with a South Korean newspaper. Full Story »

RAMBOUILLET, France (AFP) - French energy giant EDF has signed a deal with Russia's Gazprom to join the consortium building the South Stream gas pipeline, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday. Full Story »

LA PAZ (AFP) - Spanish oil company Repsol YPF will invest 1.5 million dollars over the next five years to boost natural gas production in Bolivia, the company announced Thursday. Full Story »

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Better home insulation and ventilation and using electricity instead of fossil fuels could reduce indoor pollution and save thousands of lives, especially in low-income countries like India, a study has found. Full Story »

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Chetan Maini, the engineer who pioneered India's first electric car, had his eureka moment two decades ago when he drove a vehicle fuelled by solar power across the blazing Australian outback. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar blasted big oil trade groups Tuesday, accusing them of barring the way to a balanced US energy system that would create thousands of jobs. Full Story »