LONDON, Dec. 5 -- The International Energy Agency cut its projection for growth in worldwide oil consumption by 33 percent Friday.
The IEA had previously said oil consumption would grow about 1.5 million barrels a day from 2008-13. Friday, it scaled back the forecast to 1 million barrels a day through the same period, the Financial Times reported.
"For the first time since 1945 most (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries are expected to face a severe economic recession in 2009," the IEA said in a Medium-Term Oil Market Report. "By the same token, emerging economies are bound to slow down, even if managing to maintain positive growth rates."
NEW YORK, Dec. 5 -- Crude oil prices dropped Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange with prices down more than 20 percent in the past week and headed toward $40 per barrel.
BRUSSELS, Dec. 5 -- The European Union has agreed to have 10 percent of its vehicle fuels sourced with renewable fuels by 2020 in spite of warnings from scientists.
Scientists have said that turning forests or grasslands into farmland to make up for acreage lost to biofuel production undermines the claim that biofuels is a clean source of energy, Deutsche Welle reported Friday.
But an agreement between the European Parliament, the European Commission and European Union member states, upholds the 10 percent target proposed in January, as the three parties agreed to count non-food source biofuels twice.
NEW YORK, Dec. 4 -- Crude oil prices dropped to less than $44 a barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, hitting its lowest closing price in 35 months.
Budapest - Turkey has accepted a Hungarian proposal to set up an international advocacy body to push for the quick realisation of the planned Nabucco gas pipeline, the head of a Hungarian committee said on Wednesday after talks.
The Turkish parliamentary trade and energy commissioner Soner Aksoy was in Budapest heading his country's delegation for talks with the leaders of the Hungarian parliament's ad hoc Nabucco committee.
After the meeting, the committee chairman Janos Koka told the state news agency MTI that Aksoy had expressed support for Hungary's recent proposal to set up an Nabucco advocacy committee.
Tokyo - Nippon Oil Corp, Japan's largest refine
