Beijing/Khartoum - Nine Chinese oil workers have been kidnapped by an unknown group in Sudan, state media said on Monday.

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose by 0.48 dollars Friday, following the cartel's decision to meet on October 24 to discuss production cuts.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC crude stood at 63.82 dollars Friday, up from 63.34 dollars on the previous day, OPEC said Monday.

Indian private refiner Essar Oil has partly restarted its fuel stations in the country following sharp fall in crude oil prices.

Nicosia, Oct 20: Reza Kasaizadeh, the new Head of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC), has said that Iran’s three major gas projects - the Iran LNG, the Pars LNG and the Persian LNG - will be completed by the end of 2014.

The state owned oil producer, Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) would go for acquisition of UK-listed Imperial Energy.

The Chairman and managing director of ONGC, R S Sharma said that there in no change in its earlier plans of USD 2.59 billion to bid for imperial. The company maintains a good balance sheet, and it has enough financial resources to fund the acquisition.
 
It is to be noted that crude oil rates are declining in the international market and some quarters expected scrap of bid by state owned oil giant.

Bratislava - Slovakia wants to buy back a 49-per-cent share in the country's chief gas supplier SPP from E. ON Ruhrgas and Gaz de France, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Friday.

The state would pay around 130 billion Slovak koruny (5.7 billion dollars) for the stake.

Slovakia sold the minority stake in SPP in 2002, under the previous government of pro-market premier Mikulas Dzurinda. As part of the deal, the foreign investors received a majority on firm's board.