The International Energy Agency Wednesday once again trimmed its forecast for oil demand due to the worsening economy, but said production will likely fall by a similar amount, leaving the supply balanced largely unchanged.

The IEA also highlighted data that are potentially bullish for oil prices, including an unusual reduction in oil held in storage in August and a larger forecast for the amount of oil that world markets will need from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in the fourth quarter...

Oil rose in New York, heading for the second week of gains, on speculation Europe may contain its debt crisis and the U.S. economy will recover, bolstering demand for raw materials.

Prices gained as much as 0.8 percent, reversing earlier declines, before Commerce Department data forecast to say U.S. retail sales last month climbed at the fastest pace in six months, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Oil and equity futures rallied before Group of 20 finance ministers meet to discuss Europe's debt crisis. Technical indicators showed New York crude was oversold...

The increasing disconnect between oil markets in Asia and the West was highlighted again by Saudi Arabia, which boosted export prices for a region that is the world's last hope for growth while cutting those for Europe and the United States.

And it wasn't just a minor tweak the Saudis gave Asia for crude cargoes for November lifting: they raised the premium for the main Arab Light grade to a record high over the regional benchmark Oman/Dubai price...

Opportunities in oil and natural gas have rarely been so bountiful. New finds and technological advances and fresh access to some countries are pushing exploration and production into areas once considered peripheral.

Some of the most promising new fields are in deep water off the coast of Brazil. Experts say they could yield as much oil as the North Sea. There have been significant strikes off the coast of French Guiana, north of Brazil, and off Ghana in West Africa...

Representatives of OPEC and Libya gave different outlooks Tuesday about how long it might take Libya to restore its oilproduction to prewar levels.

Abdalla Salem el-Badri, secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said Libya could reach prewar levels by the end of next year. But Shokri Ghanem, the former chairman of Libya's state-run oil company, said a return to full production could take until the end of 2013...

U.S. offshore-drilling officials issued their first citations related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Wednesday, accusing BP PLC and two of its contractors of breaking several rules.

While citations against BP were widely expected, the government's decision to pursue the contractors Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co. for infractions jolted the contracting industry, which traditionally avoids liability in such accidents...

Parliament voted in an emergency session on Tuesday to halt development of Uganda's nascent oil sector. The session was called on Monday to debate the potentially lucrative industry, in which foreign contracts have been kept secret and allegations of corruption are rampant...

Documents seized from BP's offices during a series of raids by masked bailiffs cannot be used as evidence, a Russian court has decided.

The ruling is a rare victory for BP in Russia, after a tumultuous year that has seen the collapse of its £10bn deal with state oil company Rosneft...

China will extend a value-based tax on sales of oil and natural gas nationwide starting next month to help save energy in the world's fastest-growing major economy and boost local government revenues to develop inland provinces.

The oil and gas tax, ranging from 5 to 10 percent of sales, will be levied on both domestic producers and joint ventures with overseas companies, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement today. China will apply a value-based tax on other commodities when the time is right, the ministry said...

The question of how best to handle the federal permit for the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline extension — which will transport crude oil 1,700 miles from Alberta to Texas — has evolved from a backwater process at the State Department to a high-profile political headache for the Obama administration.

Until recently, it appeared that TransCanada, arguing the pipeline will provide thousands of jobs as well as a safe and secure oil supply to the United States, was likely to obtain a federal construction and operating permit. Nearly a year ago, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was "inclined" to approve the pipeline...

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's prison sentence may have squashed President Viktor Yanukovych's drive for closer ties with the European Union, putting him at Russia's mercy before gas-price talks.

Tymoshenko, 50, was sent to prison on Oct. 11 for abuse of power when signing a 10-year gas supply and transit agreements with Russia in 2009. The verdict may have "profound implications" for Ukraine's relations with the EU, Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for the bloc's executive, said. The U.S. also condemned the sentencing...

China's growing attempts to seize global natural resources has reached Britain with a link to the recent shale discoveries near Blackpool and a bid for a London-listed uranium company.

Close ties have emerged between China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and a backer of Cuadrilla Resources, the exploration group that claimed last month there were trillions of cubic metres of shale gas under Lancashire...

A senior executive from Exxon Mobil warned Wednesday that Europe could miss a chance to reduce its dependence on imported energy by making it too difficult to develop shale gas and so-called unconventional resources.

The executive, Andrew P. Swiger, a senior vice president at Exxon, said that the conventional gas fields currently supplying Europe were expected to decline, raising dependence on imports delivered through pipelines and as liquefiednatural gas...

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing Tuesday, kicking off a two-day visit to China, his first state visit since announcing his intention to contest the Russian presidency next March.

Aside from meeting his counterpart Chinese premier Wen Jiabao in the 16th Regular Meeting between the two Prime Ministers, Putin will also meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders...

Meltdowns of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan last March have put a chill on much of the world's nuclear power industry — but not in China.

The German Parliament voted this summer to close the country's remaining nuclear power plants by 2022, while the Swiss Parliament voted this summer to phase nuclear power out by 2034. Economic stagnation in the United States and most other industrialized economies since 2008 has produced stagnant electricity demand, further sapping interest in nuclear power...

Seven months after the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Japan on Friday finally began discussing in earnest its new energy policy, which will determine the fate of the nation's nuclear-power industry.

The debate will continue well into next year and no final decisions will be made until next summer. The nuclear industry is hoping that by then palpable public hostility toward the nuclear industry will have softened as progress is made in stabilizing the Fukushima plant and decontaminating the areas around it. But the debate is likely to hinge on the evaluation of the costs of nuclear, renewable and other energy sources...

BP has been given the go ahead to proceed with a new £4.5bn oil project west of the Shetland Islands.

The BP-operated scheme is an extension of the existing Clair oil field, and will also include investment by fellow oil firms Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron...

BP is making contingency plans to fight the largest oil spill in history, as it prepares to drill more than 4,000 feet down in the Atlantic in wildlife-rich British waters off the Shetland Islands.

Internal company documents seen by The Independent show that the worst-case scenario for a spill from its North Uist exploratory well, to be sunk next year, would involve a leak of 75,000 barrels a day for 140 days — a total of 10.5 million barrels of oil, comfortably the world's biggest pollution disaster...

Energy companies with plans to build £5bn nuclear stations breathed a sigh of relief after the regulator said there were "no fundamental safety weaknesses" in the design of UK reactors.

The Government had commissioned a review of nuclear safety in the UK, after Japan's Fukushima accident. The incident in March caused several European countries, including Germany, to back out of nuclear...

A review of nuclear safety in the UK has found 38 areas where safety could be improved, in lessons drawn from the Fukushima incident in Japan early this year.

The review, ordered by the government following the Japanese experience, pinpointed critical areas for concern, including risks associated with flooding, the layout of plants, and the state of preparedness for emergencies. Ministers and the relevant regulators will be asked to look at these as a matter of urgency...

The climate change secretary, Chris Huhne, has described the UK's nuclear policy as the "most expensive failure of postwar British policy-making" in a "crowded and highly-contested field".

Huhne set out five tests for how power plants would be adopted in a cautious new regime, but is under pressure from his party to ensure any new-builds do not receive public subsidy — something the coalition has pledged it will not allow...

Solar heating systems can provide over half of households' hot water needs, according to the largest ever field trial of the green energy devices.

But the year-long study, undertaken at 88 homes by the Energy Saving Trust, also reveals that the solar water heating systems will save most owners just £55 a year despite costing between £3,000-5,000, prompting calls from green campaigners for clarity on government subsidies for them...

Barack Obama, the US president, has said there is no doubt members of the Iranian government knew of an alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington and that they must be held accountable for the "reckless behaviour".

Obama said on Thursday that one of the suspects was an individual of Iranian-American descent and had "direct links, was paid by, and was directed by individuals in the Iranian government"...

China's trade surplus narrowed for a second straight month in September to $14.5 billion, with both imports and exports lower than expected, reflecting global economic weakness and domestic cooling that will deepen policy quandaries facing Beijing.

The trade data issued on Thursday laid bare trends at the heart of Beijing's debate about how to handle U.S. pressure for a higher yuan while seeking to protect both export-driven jobs and tame inflationary pressures...

Sir Richard Branson aims to introduce a "green aviation fuel" on Virgin Atlantic aircraft within three years claiming "one of the most exciting developments of our lifetime and a major breakthrough in the war on carbon"..

His company hopes to help convert waste gases from industrial steel production into a jet propuslion that could ultimately account for nearly a fifth of the present annual global consumption of aviation fuel...