Ithaca Energy, a company focused on North Sea, has agreed to two farm-out deals, which is expected to bring down the cost of operations for the company.

Aberdeen-based oil and gas firm, Ithaca has already firmed out 25 per cent holding in two licences west of Shetland to a unit of Edison. Edison is also focusing on expanding its operations in the North Sea. Edison has said that the North Sea will emerge as its next production cluster in the International exploration and production operations. It already has operations from Mediterranean to the Falkland Islands.

Canberra, June 17 : Australia has announced the grant of 13 new offshore petroleum exploration permits as part of round one of the 2012 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release, Resources and Energy Minister Gary Gray said in a statement Monday.

The award of these permits will see an estimated 180 million AU dollars ($172.2 million) in new investment in waters off Western Australia and Tasmania over the next three years, reported Xinhua.

ENN Mojave Energy LLC has said that it has dropped plans for proposed major solar project near the Colorado River resort town of Laughlin.

ENN Mojave Energy has informed Clark County officials that it is terminating its agreement for acquiring 9,000 acres of land at the site for the project after it was unable to find customers for the power to be generated at the site. The project was expected to cost about $6 billion and would have created 2,200 permanent jobs after completion. County officials said that the project was expected to boost the local economy in the region.

According to the latest figures released, the wind turbine owners in the UK received £1.2 billion in consumer subsidies during the previous year.

According to a new report, adding energy saving improvements would increase the value of the property by between 14 per cent and 38 per cent in England.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) report, which covered more than 300,000 property sales in England between 1995 and 2011, found that energy saving improvements is an important aspect influencing the selling price of the housing units in England.

Bangalore, June 15 : Petroleum Minister M. Veerappa Moily Saturday denied he had said that he faced a threat personally from oil import lobbies.

"I did not say that. My statement has been confused by media," he told reporters on the margins of a function here.

Speaking in Kannada, Moily said what he had stated was there was "fear or anxiety" over undertaking large-scale oil exploration as there was "obstruction" to it.

New Delhi, June 15 : Petrol prices will go up by Rs. 2 per litre, excluding taxes, from midnight Saturday due to the depreciating rupee and hardening of international prices, a state-run oil marketing company (OMC) said.

The country's largest oil marketing firm Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said the prices have been revised upward due to the depreciation in the value of rupee and rise in international crude oil prices.

Global oil prices have risen to the level of $97 a barrel on Friday as the market waits for the crucial US data and amid concerns about the fallout of the conflict in Syria.

The benchmark oil for July delivery was trading 36 cents higher at $97.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price rose 81 cents to close at $96.69 a barrel on Thursday. The U. S. Federal Reserve will release industrial production data for May this would impact the price of oil in the markets. The US economy is gradually recovering but the federal cuts are having an impact on the economy.

Islamabad, June 14 : The Pakistan government has sought Chinese investment in the country's energy sector while assuring it all possible assistance required.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Thursday invited the Chinese companies to invest in the energy sector of Pakistan as the country is experiencing a severe power shortage, the Daily Times reported Friday.

During a meeting with a visiting five-member delegation led by China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) chairman Wang Yitong, Sharif invited the company to install in Pakistan solar power plants, which it produces.

According to estimates, the UK Treasury could rake in as much as £80billion windfall-form the Shale gas fracking projects in the country.

British Gas owner Centrica has said that it is acquiring a 25 per cent stake in the Bowland project in the North West. Cuadrilla is the other firm involved in the project involving 450 square miles of Lancashire between Blackpool and Preston that could have about 200trillion cubic feet of shale gas as reserves.

The government's new pricing regime for domestic natural gas is being mainly opposed by import lobbies as increasing imports of the fuel means bigger profits for these lobbies, Petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily said.

The government has plans to revise gas prices, but the plan has been facing severe criticism from the very beginning. A few weeks back, CPI senior leader Gurudas Dasgupta termed the plan as a big "scam in the making" and a move to benefit Reliance Industries.

Srinagar, June 12 : Jammu & Kashmir's governor has cleared an ordinance that will facilitate the laying of a gas pipeline from Punjab to here and acquisitionnof land needed for it, sources said Wednesday.

Governor N. N. Vohra cleared the ordinance to lay the Rs. 8.50 billion gas pipeline, government sources said.

"The issuance of the ordinance had become necessary because a bill to this effect could not be tabled by the government in the budget session of the state legislature earlier this year," a source said.

New Delhi, June 12 : The government is working to make liquefied natural gas (LNG) a comparably cheaper fuel option and achieve energy security by 2030.

"Making LNG a cheaper fuel option is a great task," Petroleum Minister M. Veerappa Moily said at the third IEF NOC-IOC forum currently underway here.

The major challenge faced by the government in this task was to arrive at a compromise pricing between what the Indian consumer has been used to and the much higher landed price of LNG imports.

New Delhi, June 11 : In an indication of the government's thinking on revising gas prices, Petroleum Minister M. Veerappa Moily said Tuesday oil companies were right in redefining their business models in view of rising production costs and reduced profits.

"The average production cost has risen from $2 per BOE (barrel of oil equivalent) in 2001 to $12 per BOE in 2012 and their (international oil companies') operating profit margins have reduced to 11 percent in 2012 from 16 percent in 2005," Moily said.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the 3rd IEF NOC-IOC Forum here co-hosted by ONGC and Shell.

According to a new report, the total reserves of oil and gas in the US has risen by an impressive 35 per cent in the US in 2013 compared to 2011.

The new report by the Energy Information Administration, which is a research unit of the Energy Department, showed that the reserves have increased significantly in the previous two years. The increasing stockpiles in the US and rising U. S. shale oil production is expected to put pressure on the oil prices in the country.

According to some reports, the government in Greece has not been able to attract investors for the privatisation of natural gas firm DEPA.

Officials closer to the matter said that the government did not receive any bids for the stake form the investors. This indicates that the country might not be able to meet the key requirement of privatisation under the terms of the international bailout. The government reportedly received no bid for DEPA and one bid gas grid operator, DESFA from Azerbaijan's SOCAR.

India's state-run, Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd (ONGC) has awarded a contract worth $185 million or around Rs. 1,050 crore to Aban Offshore Ltd.

The contract will involve the private oil drilling contractor deploying drillship Aban Ice for a period of three years. The deployment of drillship Aban Ice is expected to begin in the October-December period. The company already has 20 offshore drilling and production units at various locations.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked the United Nations nuclear monitors to make use of sophisticated technologies to inspect its facilities and prove to the world that the country is not seeking to build a nuclear bomb.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of Delhi has dedicated a new solar power generation facility to give a boost to solar power usage in the national capital.

Delhi's power distribution company BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) has installed solar panels at nine premises in the city with a combined capacity to generate 345 kilo watts. The total project cost for the new solar plant was Rs 3.6 crore, out of which about half was funded jointly by Delhi government and Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

New Delhi, June 3 : The under-recovery, or revenue loss, applicable on diesel for the second fortnight effective June 1 has been pegged sharply upwards at Rs. 4.87 per litre, the petroleum ministry said Monday.

This compares to the under-recovery of Rs. 3.73 per litre during the second fortnight of May 2013, effective May 16.

"In the case of PDS kerosene and domestic LPG, under-recoveries for the month of June 2013 fell to Rs. 27.75 per litre (from Rs. 27.93 per litre) and Rs. 335.14 per cylinder (from Rs. 378.38 per cylinder), respectively," the ministry said in a statement.