Athens/Nicosia  - Cypriot leaders will relaunch peace talks on Wednesday aimed at ending a decades-old conflict and reuniting the divided eastern Mediterranean island.

The launch of the talks on Wednesday will be in the presence of newly appointed UN envoy for Cyprus, former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

The two leaders of the ethnically-divided island agreed in July to re-launch full-fledged peace negotiations on September 3, ending a four-year deadlock in efforts to bring the two communities together.

Nicosia, Aug 29: Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, the Chairman of Bahrain’s National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA), has said that in the coming 20 years Bahrain will spend about 13 billion dollar in the oil and gas industry.

NOGA expects that of this amount up to eight billion dollar will be spend on oil and gas exploration, development and production.

The remaining amount of five billion dollar will be invested on the upgrading and modernization of the Bahrain refinery, including the construction of a new unit at a cost of one billion dollar.

There is also a plan to increase kerosene and diesel output by eleven per cent and to modernize existing units, which if everything goes according to plans will be reduced from five to two or three.

Nicosia, Aug 21 : The Head of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EPGC) Abdallah al-Alim Taha recently said that Egypt’s reserves of crude oil and natural gas have hit a record level.

The country’s confirmed reserves of crude oil, he said, have reached the all-time record of 4.2 billion barrels, representing an increase of 221 million barrels compared to the previous year.

Also, Egypt''s confirmed reserves of natural gas hit a new record reaching 76 trillion cubic feet, an increase of 3.7 trillion cubic feet compared with the previous year. This represents an annual average rate of 8.5 per cent in the last ten years.

Nicosia, July 31: In the course of this month, the Iranian Minister of Petroleum Gholamhossein Nozari announced three significant oil discoveries in the south-west of the country.

Currently, Iran is the second largest producer among the countries of OPEC, behind Saudi Arabia.

The latest discovery was made near the city of Abadan. The estimated oil-in-place amounts to 500 million barrels.

Nozari said the new oilfield would be called Arvand.

Nicosia, July 30: The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation ( SABIC), one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies, has reported preliminary consolidated profits of SR 14.5 billion for the first six months of the year, compared with SR 12.8 billion in the corresponding period of 2007.

These profits are the highest ever reported profits in one quarter and represent an increase of 13 per cent.

Nicosia - The new UN envoy to Cyprus said Tuesday he was encouraged that both leaders of the divided island were determined to find a solution to their decades-old conflict.

Former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer told journalists that prospects for a solution to the Cyprus conflict were never as positive.

He was encouraged by the determination of both Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat to find a mutually-acceptable solution.