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Oslo - Norwegian energy giant Statoil Hydro's third-quarter net income fell 57 per cent, the group said Monday, citing a stronger US dollar rate that pushed up tax rates.

Net income for the quarter was 6.3 billion kroner (937 million dollars), compared to 14.6 billion kroner in the corresponding business period of 2007.

Net operating income increased 31 per cent to 47 billion kroner, while turnover was up 35 per cent to 170 billion kroner, the group said.

Tehran, Nov 3: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said in Tehran that India's nuclear deal with the United States will in no way adversely impact a project to import Iranian gas via Pakistan.

"There will be no impact of Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement on Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline,” said Mukherjee to a joint press conference in Tehran along with Iranian Minister of Economy and Finance Shamsuddin Hoseyni.

The Indian Oil Company (IOC) has incurred a loss of Rs 7,047 crore in the second quarter ending Sept 30.The loss is believed to be more than Rs 6,963 crore that the company made in 2007-08.

The company in the first half of the year 2008-09 lost Rs 6,632 crore, as against a net profit of Rs 5,286.16 crore in the same period last year.

Beirut - Lebanese Energy and Water Minister Alan Tabourian said natural gas shipments to be used for electricity production, will begin to arrive from Egypt to Lebanon at the beginning of 2009, local Lebanese media reported Saturday.

"Egypt assured us that Lebanon will receive natural gas at the beginning of 2009 and would supply it until 2013," the Voice of Lebanon Radio station quoted the minister as saying.

The Lebanese government hopes to reduce the national energy bill by 30 percent by switching from oil to natural gas.

Moscow - The splurge of oil profits feeding Russia's years of growth has turned sticky with falling production and energy prices.

This double whammy is threatening to undercut the government's economic policy as the industry that is its main source of revenue takes a battering from the country's worst financial crisis in a decade.

Scooping huge oil windfalls into state coffers over the oil industry's boom years from 1999 to 2004 has been at the root of Russia's ideology under former President Vladimir Putin.

The surplus helped pay back a national debt as part of a therapy to recover from the humiliation an impoverished Russia suffered by the Soviet collapse and then move toward a resurgent foreign policy.