Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has dropped below 110 euros per barrel, OPEC announced on Wednesday.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC-produced crude stood at 109.09 dollars Tuesday, 2.19 dollars lower than the 111.27 dollars recorded on the previous day.

The price drop came on the same day that the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported oil production by OPEC countries in July had increased by 145,000 barrels to 

Seoul - The German solar energy firm Conergy has signed a 29.8-million-dollar agreement to extend a South Korean solar energy plant which is already Asia's largest, the company said Wednesday.

The 19.6 megawatt capacity plant at Sinan in the south-west of the country became fully operational in June and will be expanded by 4.35mw by the end of the year.

When completed, the plant will cover an area of 720,000 square metres, equivalent to 96 football fields and produce 33,000mw hours of electricity, or enough to supply 
7,200 households.

Cairn India has roped in Manu Kapoor as its new Director Corporate Affairs and CSR, effective 11th August 2008.

Prior to this appointment, Manu was with Reliance Retail Ltd as Head – Corporate Communications & Affairs responsible for communications, stakeholder management and setting up a Pan India communications network for the organisation.

Amman  - The Iraqi government has agreed to raise the discount offered to Jordan on crude oil from Kirkuk to 22 dollars per barrel, Energy Minister Khaldoun Qteishat said Tuesday.

Under a deal signed between the two countries two years ago, Iraq agreed to sell Jordan crude oil at a preferential price of 18 dollars lower than the world market price.

Iraqi oil supplies to Jordan were high on the agenda of King Abdullah II's whirlwind visit to Baghdad on Monday, when he became the first Arab head of state to visit Iraq since the downfall of the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein five years ago.

In order to bring the raising fuel prices at par with the production cost, the BK Chaturvedi panel has suggested that there should be monthly revision of prices at the rate of Rs 2.50 for petrol and 75 paise for diesel.

At present the major oil marketing companies - Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum - are selling petrol and diesel at a loss of Rs.11.60 a litre and Rs.23.23 a litre respectively. The recommendations of this report are yet to be made public.

Vienna  - As the price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) dropped 2.35 dollars Friday, the cartel's oil price fell by