Buenos Aires, Feb 9 - Argentine oil company YPF, a unit of Spain's Repsol-YPF, announced Wednesday that its investments in the South American country rose last year by 50 percent to a record 13.3 billion pesos
($3.06 billion).

The country's largest oil and gas producer, which President Cristina Fernandez's government has accused of not investing enough in Argentina, cited the investment figure in a regulatory filing.

The government of India has been able to budge immense pressure from its western allies and has reached an agreement with Iran over how to make payments for the oil imports from the Islamic Republic.

The authorities in Iran has given a month's time to a consortium of Indian state-run oil companies to close contracts for beginning production at a gas field discovered in the Persian Gulf in 2006.

The Indian consortium led by ONGC Videsh, Oil India Ltd and Indian Oil Corporation has expressed interest in developing the Farsi offshore block by investing over $5 billion over a period of seven to eight years.

Rio de Janeiro, Feb 5 - State-controlled energy giant Petrobras announced the discovery of an oil and natural gas accumulation in the Solimoes basin of Brazil's Amazon region.

The find was made during drilling of the Leste do Igarape Chibata well in Coari, a town in Amazonas state located 25 km from the so-called Urucu oil province.

Drilling reached a final depth of 3,295 meters.

Tests indicate the find has the capacity to produce 1,400 barrels per day of good-quality light oil and 45,000 cubic meters per day of natural gas, Petrobras said Friday. (IANS)

India's Reliance Industries has invited bids for bids for selling gap that will be produced from its blocks at Shahdol and Annupur in the central Indian state of Madya Oradesh.

The company said that it is aimin go to produce up to 3.5 million standard cubic metres a day (mscmd) of gas by the second half of 2014 from two coal-bed-methane (CBM) blocks from locations in the state.

According to some reports, the oil companies in India have reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) by as much as Rs. 1,974 per kilolitre or 3.02 per cent to the level of Rs 62,908 per kl, bringing some relief to the cash-strapped aviation firms in the country.

India’s union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday that India will not reduce oil imports from Iran, despite US and European sanctions against the Islamic republic.

The governments in Europe and the US are urging Asian countries to reduce oil imports from Iran so as to make their sanctions more effective in order to force Tehran to come clean on its nuclear programme. Iran is suspected of covertly developing nuclear weapons, a charge it denies and maintains that it has the right to harness civilian nuclear energy for generating power.

The governments of India and Pakistan have given their in-principle approval on having a uniform transit fee for wheeling gas from Turkmenistan.

The gas is to flow through the proposed $7.6-billion pipeline. The agreement for the plan is different from other transit proposals involving the two south Asian neighbors. The disagreements on transit fee as well as the prices of the fuel have stalled progress on other similar projects.

The price of gasoline is rising in the American market the cost of crude oil stayed above $100 per barrel for most of the month over tensions in the gulf region involving Iran, despite a low demand in the US.

The national average price of gasoline crossed on Friday, rising about $.17 from the previous month and about $.27cents more than the previous year, according to the data released by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Essar Oil is planning to file a review petition in the Supreme Court against the apex court's verdict on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court of India has put aside a ruling by Gujarat High Court in 2008 and has asked Essar Oil to pay Rs 6,308 crore for a sales tax deferment scheme as the company was not eligible for the scheme.

Suzlon Energy, which is a leading wind turbine manufacturer, has entered into an agreement with the authorities of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to install capacities to generate about 3,000 mw of power till 2016 through wind energy.

Suzlon signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Andhra Pradesh government for setting up of the wind farms at the CII's Partnership Summit in Hydrabad, which was attended by the Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Tunis, Jan 17 - Italy's petroleum company ENI has plans to invest over $600 million in Tunisia in 2012, TAP news agency reported.

The company also intends to recruit 160 people for its Tunisian site, Xinhua quoted TAP citing ENI's vice president Franco Paolo.

Paolo, who called on Tunisian Minister of Industry and Commerce Mohamed Lamine Chakhari Monday, said the investments would concern the development of oil fields and the reinforcement of exploration activities.

The prices of Brent crude moved towards $111 on Monday as concerns over supply disruption due to reactions from Iran.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has warned Gulf countries of consequences if they raised oil output to replace supply from Iran. Even as western countries made alternative arrangements for replacing Iranian oils the international market remained concerned over disruptions.

According to some reports, Turkish firms might stop acting as intermediaries for the Indian firms to purchase crude oil from Iran in the wake of increased tensions between the authorities in Iran and western powers.

Oil firm officials have held meeting with Indian oil ministry officials in order to discuss alternative actions including routing remittances through Russia. The oil firms in India might also have to suspect import of oil from the country altogether to avoid any adverse actions by western countries.

India's state-run, Oil & Natural Gas Corp has said that it will buyout British energy major BG Group's stake in three oil and gas exploration blocks.

Company Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Vasudeva said that ONGC will acquire the stake in three of BG's eastern offshore oil and gas exploration blocks. ONGC will also receive $ 50 million from the UK firm for settlement of past costs that were incurred by ONGC for carrying out work on behalf of BG.

According to reports, European countries have found a common ground and have agreed in principle to impose a ban on Iranian oil in order to show a united stance amid growing tensions with the Islamic republic's government.

Iran is suspected of covertly developing nuclear weapons, a charge it denies and maintains that it has the right to harness civilian nuclear energy for generating power. A final decision on the ban of Iranian oil is expected to be taken before the end of January and will be enforced in planned phases in order not to disrupt global oil supplies.

The Indian government decided to defer a meeting with state-run Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) on deciding the level of petrol price hike to Wednesday.

The government's decision resulted a fall in share prices of the firms in the country. Shares of three state-run oil marketing companies fell 1.12% to 1.58% on th Bomaby Stock Exchange this morning at the time of reporting.

The Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in India are most likely to increase the price of petrol in the country by Rs. 2.10 - 2.13 per litre in order to compensate for the weakening Indian rupee.

The rise will come amid continuing fall in the value of the rupee against the US dollar. The international price of gasoline has more or less remained the same since the last price hike. In order to compensate, the companies would need an increase of Rs. 1.78 per litre and after adding local sales tax or VAT, the hike is likely to be between Rs. 2.10 - 2.13 a litre.

The petrol prices in India might be increase from the coming month after the state-owned oil companies review the global prices on December 31.

The Oil companies in the country review oil prices every fortnight and make changes to the prices according to the trends. The mechanism came into effect following deregulation of petrol pricing by the government.

The Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in India might be planning to increase the price of petrol by 50-60 paise from December 16 due to the continuing fall in the value of the rupee and increase in crude prices in international markets.

The fall of the rupee to the psychological 54 against the dollar is the major reason for the increase in the prices. The low value of the Indian currency has increased the price of imports. The companies are expected to review the prices today and decide the price of the petrol.