The chief election commission of India has served a notice to union petroleum minister Murli Deora for his alleged announcement on fuel price reduction.

Mr. Deora had announced price reduction in line with falling international prices of crude oil, after completion of the ongoing election process and opposition parties, especially, BJP, objected to the comments of the Union Minister. It filed a complaint against him before the election commission. Now, the EC has asked the union minister to file his reply by November 27 on his comments regarding price cut.

Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatk, speaking at the inaugural function of the two-day 'India-CIS roundtable on hydrocarbons' said regarding the Imperial bid, "Our approach towards this important deal is very liberal. If the Indian company acquires Imperial Energy, we are not going to put forward any demand regarding reciprocal stake in Indian oil PSUs."

OVL was expecting that it might have to give 25-40 per cent stake to a Russian company in lieu of the regulatory approvals from the Russian Government for acquiring Imperial Energy which will cost about 1.4 billion pounds ($2.1 billion).

Hanoi  - A broken hose caused a small oil spill during a test-run of Vietnam's first oil refinery, a senior company official confirmed Wednesday.

The spill occurred off of Vietnam's central coast on Monday night as workers were pumping oil from the Singaporean tanker Eagle Milwaukee to the refinery, the official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, on condition of anonymity.

"Strong waves broke a cargo hose, so oil was spilled into the sea," he added, "but relevant agencies have tried to limit the spill."

The official declined to say how much oil was leaked, but local environmental sources from Quang Ngai province say it was relatively small.

Tallinn  - The presidents of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania met near the Estonian capital, Tallinn, Tuesday to discuss relations with Russia among other topics.

In the picturesque, snowbound surroundings of Sausti Manor, President Valdis Zatlers of Latvia and Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania were hosted by their Estonian counterpart, Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

After the meeting the three presidents told journalists that their countries should pursue pragmatic relations with Russia via their memberships of the European Union and NATO.

Madrid - A planned deal for the Russian oil giant Lukoil to become the biggest shareholder of Spain's top oil company Repsol YPF could collapse over lack of financing and Spanish political opposition, media reported Tuesday.

Lukoil is interested in buying nearly 30 per cent of Repsol in a deal estimated at up to 9.8 billion euros (12.5 billion dollars).

The purchase would include a 20-per-cent stake now held by the debt-ridden construction company Sacyr Vallehermoso and part of a

Oslo - Citing the effects of the global financial turmoil, the fund that invests income from Norway's petroleum and gas riches for future pensions on Tuesday reported its lowest return to date.

The return on the fund during third-quarter 2008 fell 7.7 per cent measured in international currency, the central bank that manages the fund said.

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global was worth 2.12 trillion kroner (299 billion dollars) at the end of the third quarter.