Oil breached the $123-a-barrel mark for the first time since August 2008 on Friday after attacks on Libyan oil fields fuelled concerns about supply.

Brent crude surged by $1.05, or 1.0%, to $123.95 (£75.50) per barrel, while US crude jumped by 98 cents to $111.28, its highest level since September 2008...

With oil firmly over $120 this week, Beijing responded by raising motor fuel prices on Thursday, the second time it has done so in a year.

More significant than the rises, however, is their restraint. The threat of inflation is such that Beijing has kept motor fuels much cheaper than the basket of international crude oils it uses as its reference...

Oil prices could rocket to $200- $300 a barrel if the world's top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is hit by serious political unrest, former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani said on Tuesday.

Yamani said he saw no immediate sign of further trouble following protests last month calling for political reforms but said that underlying discontent remained unresolved...

US interior secretary Ken Salazar has rejected claims that BP has reached an agreement to restart drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

Media reports have said that the UK oil giant will resume work in July at 10 sites in the Gulf...

Christian groups with more than £200m in BP shares are unhappy with the oil giant's response to improving safety following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and are advising members to vote against certain resolutions at the BP annual shareholder meeting next week.

The UK's Church Investor Group (CIG), whose members include the Church Commissioners and the Methodist Church Central Board of Finance, advise voting against the oil giant's remuneration report. They also recommend a vote against the re-election of Sir Bill Castell, the senior non-executive in charge of BP's safety committee...

The U.K. government appears willing to consider measures to mitigate the effect of a recent increase in tax on oil and gas producers, following a meeting with oil-industry representatives last week, a senior executive at French oil company Total SA said Wednesday.

Representatives of the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Treasury "realized that the concerns of industry are real...not just a selfish reaction," said Patrice de Vivies, Total's vice president of exploration and production in northwestern Europe...

The Alberta government said Tuesday it intends to set new environmental standards—including outlining specific benchmarks for water contamination—for areas affected by Canada's vast and growing oil-sands production in the west of the country.

The provincial government, in unveiling a new development plan for the oil-sands region on Tuesday, also said it would set aside two million hectares, or more than 7,700 square miles, of land in the region for conservation. The move will require the cancelation of 10 oil-sands leases, though the government didn't disclose which companies had been affected...

Huge demand for energy resources in China and India has pushed the price of thermal coal to an all time high, reinforcing fears about spiralling inflation.

Thermal coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide and demand could rise still further if nuclear power programmes suffer a setback following the crisis at the Fukushima reactors in Japan...

The World Bank is planning to restrict the money it gives to coal-fired power stations, bowing to pressure from green campaigners to radically revise its funding rules.

The new proposals would not mean an end to funding for fossil fuels, but would represent a departure from previous regulations. Under these rules, the bank has provided sizeable financial support for coal-fired power stations in the developing world in spite of protests from governments and green groups...

Just because the nuclear backlash was inevitable doesn't make it right. Long-standing opponents have naturally seized on the Japanese emergency in a bid to reverse the industry's budding renaissance, and in Europe at least there is a chance they could succeed. Industry share prices have slumped as governments including Switzerland, Germany and Britain have applied the brakes. Since northern Europe is far less prone to earthquakes and new reactor designs are based on passive safety, the implications should be more political than technical. But the consequences of ditching nuclear now could be severe for both the climate and energy security.

The antis are right there are huge issues around nuclear: costs, subsidy, toxic waste disposal, secrecy, and the potential for catastrophic accidents — though the industry generally kills far fewer people than coal or oil, and nobody calls for hydro to be banned when a dam bursts with a death toll of thousands. But what they never acknowledge is its one undeniable strength: it is currently the only source of zero carbon baseload generation, the kind we need day in and day out regardless of fluctuating demand and renewable supply...

Workers in Japan have begun injecting nitrogen into one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to prevent more hydrogen blasts.

The gas is being pumped into reactor 1 of the six-unit plant which was damaged by last month's quake and tsunami...

Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger used to be a firm supporter of nuclear energy. But now he's not so sure. SPIEGEL spoke with Oettinger about Chancellor Angela Merkel's about-face on nuclear energy, what it means for the European energy supply and whether other EU countries will follow suit...

Britain's plans to generate power from two new nuclear stations by 2018 received a blow, after the safety regulator delayed its verdict on reactor designs by at least three months.

The UK authorities are having to rethink their approach to approving nuclear stations following the Fukushima atomic disaster. Japan is still struggling to contain radiation at the nuclear plant after an earthquake and ensuing tsunami destabilised reactors which were supposed to be able to withstand natural disaster...

Wind farms are much less efficient than claimed, producing below 10% of capacity for more than a third of the time, according to a new report.

The analysis also suggested output was low during the times of highest demand...

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Global investment in US clean technology has reached its highest level since 2008, while investment in UK companies has dropped sharply, quarterly figures show.

Increasing investor confidence and rising oil prices have helped investment in North American companies more than double compared with the previous quarter, according to a report by Cleantech Group, an international firm that works to accelerate the development and market adoption of clean technologies...

In a move that could shake up the American solar industry, General Electric plans to announce on Thursday that it will build the nation's largest photovoltaic panel factory, with the goal of becoming a major player in the market.

"For the past five years, we've been investing extremely heavily in solar," said Victor Abate, vice president for G.E.'s renewable energy business. "Going to scale is the next move."...

When Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced its $12 billion joint venture with Brazilian sugar-cane-ethanol producer Cosan Ltd. last year, it was a massive vote of confidence in a sector that has taken a battering over the last few years.

After a big boom in the middle of the decade, biofuels were hit badly by the global recession, though they have recently begun to stabilize. Concerns about greenhouse-gas emissions, oil-price spikes and energy security have turned them from a niche sector into a global industry that attracted nearly $650 million in venture capital last year. World-wide production grew to more than 100 billion liters in 2010 from 16 billion liters in 2000. Shell says biofuels could make up as much as 20% of all transportation fuels in 30 years, up from about 3% now...

The starchy cassava root has long been an important ingredient in everything from tapioca pudding and ice cream to paper and animal feed.

But last year, 98 percent of cassava chips exported from Thailand, the world's largest cassava exporter, went to just one place and almost all for one purpose: to China to make biofuel. Driven by new demand, Thai exports of cassava chips have increased nearly fourfold since 2008, and the price of cassava has roughly doubled...

In a forest of tubes eight metres high in eastern Spain scientists hope they have found the fuel of tomorrow: bio-oil produced with algae mixed with carbon dioxide from a factory.

Almost 400 of the green tubes, filled with millions of microscopic algae, cover a plain near the city of Alicante, next to a cement works from which the C02 is captured and transported via a pipeline to the "blue petroleum" factory...

Oil prices hit a two-and-a-half-year high yesterday amid warnings that the soaring cost of raw materials will put the brakes on Britain's manufacturing boom.

Brent crude pushed above $120 a barrel after traders voiced concern that continued fighting in Libya and the prospect of a resurgent US economy would put pressure on supplies...

The UK will struggle to foot the bill of repairing its weather-damaged road network as soaring oil costs spark concerns about the price of building materials.

In a series of letters obtained by the Financial Times, the world's largest asphalt and concrete suppliers warn customers about the likely impact high oil prices and ongoing unrest in the Middle East will have on costs...

Uncertainty about wind subsidies could cost the UK thousands of green jobs, the head of the world's biggest wind turbine manufacturer has warned.

Ditlev Engel, chief executive of Vestas, said his company was looking to create thousands of jobs to build its latest model of turbine, which will be taller than London's Gherkin...

Sales of petrol at the pumps have dipped sharply over recent years, according to Government figures highlighted today by the AA.

In terms of weight, petrol sales fell 13.95% between 2007 and 2010...

The Senate rejected a measure on Wednesday to kill the Environmental Protection Agency's regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, handing President Barack Obama a victory in his effort to quicken the move to clean energy.

The EPA's rules, which it began rolling out on polluters such as power plants and oil refineries early this year, are one of Obama's top strategies to show the world the United States is fighting climate change...

Spain has insisted it will not become the next victim of the eurozone debt crisis after Portugal finally bowed to widespread pressure on Wednesday night and joined Greece and Ireland in requesting a European Union bailout.

Attention turned to Spain as investors questioned whether Portugal's decision to seek help would bring calm to Europe or help to drag Madrid into the mire...

Rebels in eastern Libya say their forces have been mistakenly hit in a Nato air raid on a rebel tank position.

Rebels said five died, while doctors in Ajdabiya told the BBC at least 13 rebel fighters had been killed in the strike...

Oil production in rebel-controlled eastern Libya has stopped after troops loyal to Muammer Gaddafi bombarded several oilfields, the opposition said on Wednesday...