Crude Oil

The new president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, will look to promote “growth” in the eurozone, according to a leading portfolio manager in the City of London.

BP has drawn up a contingency plan to tackle an oil spill off the coast Shetland Islands, which has the potential to be bigger than its Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Russia said on Tuesday it is close to finalising a huge gas supply deal with China, in what would be a landmark trade agreement, but while officials insist cooperation between the two wary neighbours is only set to improve, lengthy negotiations prove the distrust is still hampering the Sino-Russian relationship.

Saudi Arabia plans to spend over $100 billion to build 16 nuclear reactors in an effort to meet its growing domestic energy needs, the kingdom's former Saudi intelligence chief and former ambassador to Washington said in a recent speech.

According to U.S officials, rebel forces that captured towns from Nalut to Kikla in Libya's western Nafusa Mountains managed to cut a vital crude oil pipeline that feeds one of the government's major refineries in the town of al-Zawiya, greatly impeding the Libyan government's ability to continue fighting the rebels.

NATO forces flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound early on Monday, in what a press official from Gaddafi's government said was an attempt on the Libyan leader's life.

Shares in Essar were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the company reported a drop in it's a pre-tax profit in the half year period ended 30 June, despite a significant rise in revenue in the period.