TOP NEWS PICK : MAY 26, 2011

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Oil at $101 amid weak dollar, mixed demand signs

SINGAPORE — Oil prices hovered above $101 a barrel Thursday in Asia amid a weaker dollar and mixed signs about U.S. crude demand heading into the summer driving season.| Stateman.com

 

Chávez silent over PDVSA sanctions

Hugo Chávez must be distraught. There’s nothing he loves more than to launch into spirited tirades against the “empire” (a.k.a. the USA), and now he has the perfect excuse: it slapped sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA for selling fuel to Iran. | Financial Times

Obama orders 100% alternative fuels in Government by 2015

n Washington, President Barack Obama has issued a Presidential Memorandum that all federal car fleets must buy only 100% alternative fuel vehicles by the end of 2015. | Biofuels Digest

Gazprom, Japan ‘set for $7bn LNG plant’

A total of $7 billion will be invested by Gazprom and Japanese companies in a long-mooted LNG plant destined for Far Eastern Russia, Reuters reported today. | Upstream Online

TNK-BP eyes Brazil fields

Russia's TNK-BP , half owned by BP , is ready to spend $1 billion to acquire a stake in oil and gas fields in Brazil as part of its foreign expansion, Russian newspaper Kommersant has reported. | Upsteam Online

Oil industry losing the shale PR battle

As questions about hydraulic fracturing – fracking as it is known in the industry – continue to build, the oil and gas industry is finding investors asking for more transparency as to how companies are going to face the growing risks to production. | Financial Times

Fight for power in Tanzania

Corrosion issues on a Tanzania gas field are causing mounting problems for the operator, which is fighting to restore production on which the capital Dar es Salaam and the rest of the country’s industrial activity depends for its power supplies.| Upstream Online

Oil up on weaker dollar

Brent crude futures rose above $115 a barrel today, supported by a weaker dollar and an unexpected drop in US distillate stocks that overshadowed last week’s gains in gasoline and crude inventories.| Upstream Online

Nigeria: Petroleum Minister Denies Reports of Senate Indictment

Minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, yesterday denied reports that she was indicted for fraud on two different occasions by the Senate. | 234Next

Shell eyes possible Macondo suit

Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell is examining plans to bring legal challenges over possible losses following last year’s Macondo oil spill, the worst in US history. | Upstream Online

Turkmen gas field 'world's second biggest'

The British auditor of Turkmenistan's South Iolotan gas field said today that its forthcoming report on the deposit would reveal it to be comfortably the world's second-largest. | Upstream Online

Supermajors face growing frac concerns

Large blocks of investors in the two largest US oil companies today demanded more disclosure about the environmental risks of extracting oil and gas through hydraulic fracturing. | Upstream Online

In Switzerland’s Decision to Phase Out Nuclear Power, a Glimpse of the Future?

The political fallout from Japan’s nuclear crisis has reached Switzerland. | Forbes

Ex Ukraine PM charged in Russia Gas Deal

Ukrainian prosecutors have charged former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with abuse of office for signing a gas import contract with Russia at prices that officials say were too high. | Today’s Zaman

Ghanem 'to represent Libya at OPEC'

LOS ANGELES, May 25 -- Libya’s Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem, missing for nearly a week, will represent the North African country at the June 8 meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to a senior Libyan official. | Oil & Gas Journal

BP, Transocean 'talk Macondo'

Transocean has had high-level talks with BP about last year's Macondo well disaster, for which it believes BP is responsible for the damages, an executive said. | Upstream Online

Russia in talks with Shell on Arctic cooperation

Russia's top energy official met today with Anglo-Dutch Shell's chief executive Peter Voser to "discuss deepening of the company's cooperation with its Russian partners," including long-term cooperation on oil and natural gas production on the Arctic shelf and the Black Sea, according to the government website. | Upstream Online

US: Oil markets manipulated in '08, CFTC says

NEW YORK, May 25 (UPI) -- Three energy companies have been charged in a U.S. district court in New York with manipulating crude oil prices from January to April 2008. | Upstream Online

Nigeria's central bank urges tighter control on oil JV funding

Nigeria's central bank has called for tighter controls on funds disbursed for joint oil operations with foreign companies and on subsidies for fuel imports, noting that the country's economy is not seeing the benefits of higher global crude prices. | Platts

Israeli government considers intervention in gas market: sources

The Israel Antitrust Authority and several ministries are considering imposing limitations on oil and gas exploration companies in the country to prevent a monopolistic situation from emerging, government officials said Wednesday. | Platts

Indonesia to fall short of 2011 oil output target - BPMigas

Indonesia's crude and condensate production this year will likely average between 933,000 b/d and 945,000 b/d, below its target of 970,000 b/d as a result of unplanned shutdowns, the chairman of upstream regulator BPMigas said Tuesday. | Platts