Vilnius - The Lithuanian foreign ministry said Thursday it backed a suggestion by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to abandon the Nord Stream gas pipeline project due to be built under the Baltic Sea.

On Wednesday Putin said Europe must decide whether it wants the 10-billion-dollar pipeline to link Russia and Germany or not.

New Delhi, Nov. 13: ONGC Videsh Ltd. and its partner IPR Red Sea Inc. have made a second oil discovery in the North Ramadan Concession, Gulf of Suez, Egypt.

The discovery in well North Ramadan-2 (NR-2) is the second oil discovery in this block. The discovery well, NR-2, is located on a separate fault block north of IPR''s first oil discovery, NR-1A ST1, which produced approx. 3,000 BOPD (barrels of oil per day) and 1.5 MMSCFPD (million standard cubic feet per day) during the testing phase.

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fell to 49.94 dollars Wednesday, reaching yet another record low for this year.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC crude was priced 2.30 dollars lower than on Tuesday, the Vienna-based cartel said Thursday.

Oil prices fell as markets reacted to plans in the United States to shift some of its economic rescue package to consumer debts, away from buying up bad mortgage assets from finance firms, analysts at JBC Energy said in Vienna.

New York - US utility owner Exelon Corp's bid to acquire power producer NRG Energy Inc turned bitter Wednesday, with Exelon taking its 5.71-billion-dollar offer directly to shareholders after being rejected by the NRG management.

The acquisition would make Exelon the largest power producer in the United States. NRG is said to have rejected the bid partly because it believes that Exelon couldn't guarantee financing.

NRG chief executive David Crane said Tuesday that Exelon was undervaluing his company, according to Bloomberg financial news agency.

Vienna - The price fo

Amsterdam - The arrival in Rotterdam of the first shipload of palm oil certified as "sustainable" was celebrated on Tuesday, despite the release of a report by the environmentalist group Greenpeace that claimed the producer had violated sustainability standards.

The palm oil from Malaysian producer United Plantions had been certified as sustainable by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in September. But Greenpeace claimed in a report that the company does not meet all criteria set for an environmentally friendly product as laid down by the roundtable.