Israel has long been a major importer of energy supplies, including oil and natural gas, but recent discoveries have drawn positive outlook for the Israeli energy sector. Barclays Capital has given a “positive” outlook on Israel's energy exploration and production, citing the...

The U.S. Interior Department has granted Shell permission to start limited drilling in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's coast. Shell has spent nearly $5 billion and six years preparing to drill in the arctic but has suffered a series of setbacks including most recently, delays in...

Venezuela's biggest oil refinery remained closed Friday after firefighters put out a fire that raged for more three days following an explosion that killed at least 48 people, left dozens wounded and hundreds homeless. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, seeking re-election in October,...

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority has halted disconnecting customers, a shift in policy that had been developed because of a epidemic of customers not paying thjeir bills. ZESA, the state-owned power company that is Zimbabwe's sole electricity generator and supplier for the...

The majority of Japanese say they want to end the country's dependence on nuclear power, a new report says. The report, by a government panel of experts that analyzed recent polls on the country's attitudes toward nuclear power, says the majority of the public has expressed support...

Tanzania has begun to develop its liquefied natural gas facilities. Tanzania Deputy Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Masele has been in discussions with Norwegian energy company Statoil Vice President Tim Dodson to convince BG Group PLC to support building an LGN plant in...

State-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. is offering 26 offshore blocks, 22 of which are in the South China Sea, for joint development with foreign companies. The announcement, posted Tuesday on CNOOC's Web site, comes two months after the oil giant offered nine oil and gas blocks...

New international rules are needed to protect the arctic environment as it is targeted for more energy exploration, the Netherlands said this week. Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation Maxime Verhagen told an international energy conference in Norway Monday the huge...

Mexico is giving the go-ahead to U.S. Chimera Energy Corp. to deploy its new non-hydraulic shale oil extraction technology in its Chicontepec Basin. The technology is seen by the industry as a game-changing method of extracting hydrocarbons from shale without adverse effects on ground water...

Australia's carbon pricing scheme will link with the European Union's emissions trading plan, a government official announced. The move, announced by Australian Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, comes less than two months after Australia's carbon pricing scheme took...

Australia's mining boom is far from over, a government official said. “The truth of the matter is, according to private forecasters, we're not even halfway through the mining investment boom, let alone the production boom,” Federal Trade Minister Craig Emerson told the...

PetroChina, China's biggest oil and natural gas producer, warned economic growth would be slow in the coming months. PetroChina itself posted a 6 percent decline in its January-June 2012 profit, compared to a similar period in 2011, after losses from selling fuels, as sales at...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he aims for the United States to become energy independent by 2020. In a campaign stop Thursday in New Mexico, Romney said, “This is not some pie in the sky kind of thing. This is a real, achievable objective.” His speech comes...

Brazil is going ahead with a smart metering expansion in its electricity power grid despite persistent disparities in the distribution of utilities across the Latin American country's social spectrum. Brazil is the largest regional electricity market with a power consumption known to...

I love driving in Beirut but that's because I like driving among caffeine-fueled, race-car drivers, all jamming at high speed, with little consideration for stop signs, stop lights, pedestrians or emergency vehicles. That I like this, and indeed, have adapted to driving like this,...

An Indian government auditing agency criticized India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board for not being truly autonomous and for its lack of a radiation safety policy. India's Comptroller and Auditor General, in a report released Wednesday, warned that a Fukushima or Chernobyl-like...

Argentina is under fire for increasing protectionist barriers and fighting criticism with countercharges against nations that complain about the trade policies of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Fernandez received a tongue-lashing from Spanish newspaper ABC for hoping to fight...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, seeking re-election Oct. 7, says he plans to spend $130 billion over six years to double the country's daily crude oil output. Venezuela produces about 3 million barrels per day when its state-controlled hydrocarbons industry operates normally. However,...

Canada's Africa Oil Corp. increased its estimated resources for its Kenyan and Ethiopian concessions. Africa Oil Corp. commissioned British accounting firm Gaffney, Cline and Associates to review its East African hydrocarbon concessions. The survey didn't include Somali Puntland...

Mining giant BHP Billiton has put on hold its $30 billion expansion of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine project in South Australia. BHP said it wouldn't meet the Dec. 15 deadline to approve the expansion but will investigate less expensive methods to increase production at the...

Nigeria's capital Abuja has been experiencing fuel scarcities since the country's petroleum workers went on strike a week ago. Now the industrial action begun by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Federal Capital Territory chapter may spread nationwide. NUPENG...

Australia has more rooftop solar installations than any country in the world, new data indicate. The data, from the Australian government's Clean Energy Regulator and the International Energy Agency, show that Australia installed a total of 785 megawatts of solar power last year, mostly...

Argentina's $2 billion biofuels export market is at risk from an EU trade dispute that has been complicated by Argentine seizure of local energy company Repsol YPF. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner rushed legislation through Parliament in May to nationalize the energy...

The United States is using climate finance funds to kill India's solar power industry, says an Indian public interest research and advocacy group. Fast-start finance is a $30 billion fund set up under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Adopted at the Copenhagen climate...

The Fukushima Daiichi disaster slowed but didn't reverse the expansion of nuclear power in 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in Vienna. The U.N. agency, releasing its annual report Friday, said its post-accident projections of global nuclear power capacity in 2030 were...

Australia's fish populations are moving southward because the waters around Australia are becoming warmer, a new report says. The “2012 Marine Climate Change in Australia Report Card” from Australia's national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial...

New Jersey company FJS Energy LLC signed a $7 million deal with India's Abhijeet Group to purchase coal from Kentucky and West Virginia, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear announced. Under the deal, Kentucky coal companies will export about 9 million tons of coal annually for 25 years to...

The Nigerian government said it will greatly expand the country's natural gas production. Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke said the government has initiated an extensive gas expansion project, which will add 120 million cubic feet of gas per day to...

Brazil's controversial Belo Monte dam project is caught up in litigation after a federal court ordered suspension of the work on its construction. Campaigners said a long legal process lay ahead as both the government and its commercial partners would likely appeal the court ruling....

Azerbaijan state energy company SOCAR revealed this week it recently hosted top-level energy discussions with Kyrgyzstan officials on economic development. The two Turkic-speaking countries — both formerly part of the Soviet Union — have taken steps this year to ramp up energy and...