BEIJING, Dec. 17 (UPI) – China has started construction of eight new coal mining projects aimed at powering rural areas.
The eight projects include coal mines and chemical and power projects worth about $5.8 billion. All eight projects are located in the northwest part of the country in an effort to increase domestic demand for energy [...]

By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer
Oil prices rose above $52 a barrel Wednesday as a large interest rate cut in China was seen boosting its oil demand. News that Russia could join OPEC in cutting output also propped up prices, although more bad news about the U.S. economy kept the rise in check.
By mid-afternoon in [...]

TEHRAN, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) — Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Mohsen Delaviz Sunday announced that an exclusive exhibition of nuclear industry achievements is to open at Tehran University on Monday, the official IRNA news agency reported.
This is the first time that Iran decided to publicize the achievements of its nuclear program [...]

Bucharest. The BBC informs Romania has signed a deal to build two more reactors at its only nuclear power station, Cernavoda, on the Danube. The 4bn-euro deal gave a 49% stake to six European commercial partners - ArcelorMittal, CEZ, GDF Suez, Enel, Iberdrola and RWE Power. Romania’s state-controlled Nuclearelectrica will take part in the [...]

Iran’s member of parliament Seied Mohammad Reza Tajeddini said here on Sunday that Iran has lost billions of dollars by a gas deal with a Gulf firm, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Tajeddini regarded the contract between the two sides as illegal, adding that it was against the constitution and the interest of the [...]

Article from: Agence France-Presse
KUWAIT is prepared to cut its oil output if its partners in OPEC decide to slash production, the oil minister says.
“Kuwait will not hesitate to support the world oil market and will cut production… based on an agreement between OPEC members,” Mohammad al-Olaim told the official KUNA news agency.
He called [...]

By Massoud A. Derhally
(Bloomberg) — Jordan’s Prime Minister Nader Dahabi met with Anne Lauvergeon, the chief executive officer of Areva SA, the world’s largest nuclear reactor maker, and discussed the kingdom’s plan to build a 1,100-awatt reactor.
“Jordan is keen to expand cooperation with Areva in a comprehensive manner that includes the construction of the [...]

MOSCOW: Plans have been drawn up for a pipeline linking Siberian oil fields to China, a Russian minister was quoted as saying Sunday, in a sign o
f tightening ties between Russia and its energy-hungry neighbour.
Russia’s state-controlled pipeline monopoly Transneft has finished designing a spur from the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline to China, Deputy Prime [...]

By Amy Wilson
Libya will take $7bn of assets out of Swiss banks and stop supplying oil to the country, as an acrimonious dispute that started with the arrest of Colonel Gaddafi’s son escalated.
The north African country said the moves were a protest against the “poor treatement of Libyan diplomats and businessmen by the [...]