Washington - The Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said Saturday she will "consider" allowing offshore drilling in some areas, with "appropriate safeguards."

Pelosi outlined this shift from her earlier opposition to opening new areas to oil exploration, during the Democratic Party's weekly radio address.

Wednesday saw the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Doera ruling out a reduction in domestic fuel prices. In the past two months, there has been a continuous drop in the international crude oil prices and this has also brought the Indian crude basket by 8 percent.

Mr. Deora also informed the reporters, “The fall in prices of crude oil is a very positive and good sign. But … the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) are incurring massive losses due to under-recoveries at various levels.”

Last month, where the crude oil prices were high up to $147, this week it saw a downfall to around $ 113 a barrel.

Prague  - The Czech energy giant CEZ said Thursday its net profit rose by 67.2 per cent to 13.06 billion koruny (801.5 million dollars) in the second quarter of 2008, from 7.81 billion in the same period last year.

The state-controlled energy firm's April-June sales were up by 7 per cent year-on-year from 39.04 billion koruny to 41.82 billion koruny.

A hike in wholesale electricity prices, savings and an increased share of nuclear power generation were behind the strong results, the company said.

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Hanoi - Vietnam reduced retail gasoline prices 5.2 per cent Thursday after world crude oil prices fell below 120 dollars a barrel, a government official said.

The price was reduced from 19,000 dong (1.14 dollars) to 18,000 dong per litre, Deputy Trade and Industry Minister Nguyen Cam Tu said.

"The price of gasoline was reduced because of many factors, and the most important factor is the decline of world crude oil prices," Tu told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "We reduced the price for the sake of society."