“We again realize that the Middle East is not a stable region. We must act to ensure our energy security without relying on others,” a spokesman for Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau told AFP on Tuesday.
International oil companies including BP, Shell and Russia’s Lukoil have evacuated non-essential staff from Egypt due to the violent anti-government protests that broke out in Cairo and other major cities last week.
Fears that the turmoil in Egypt could disrupt oil shipments passing through the Suez canal and engulf the Middle East drove the price of Brent crude oil through the $100 barrier for the first time in over two years.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Transocean Ltd. were among companies shutting offices or evacuating workers from Egypt as the effects of protests against President Hosni Mubarak rippled through the oil industry.
Oil prices rose Wednesday as investors focused on President Obama’s ideas for more jobs and overhaul corporate taxes.
The Korea Petrochemicals Industry Association (KPIA) (Seoul, South Korea) recently announced that petrochemical manufacturers in the country would make a combined investment of about $12.8 billion on facilities through 2013.
Occidental Petroleum Corp (OXY.N) will take a 40 percent share of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s (ADNOC) $10 billion Shah gas project, one of the largest in the Middle East, the companies said on Thursday.
warned one of the most successful fund managers to invest in natural resources in the world that oil prices could climb to $ 120 a barrel or more during the current year to reach the level of hampering economic growth.
Venezuela has overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world leader in oil reserves with certified deposits leaping to 297 billion barrels at the end of 2010, President Hugo Chavez’s government said Saturday.
Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi said that a major natural gas field called Khayyam has been discovered in southern Iranian oilfield of Assalouyeh, the state-owned IRNA news agency reported on Monday.
