NEW YORK (AFP) – Oil prices rose sharply Monday as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict intensified and major crude producer Iran said OPEC would hold a special meeting next month.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for February, shot up 2.47 dollars to close at 48.81 dollars a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February rallied [...]

BOSTON – Citgo, the Venezuelan government’s Texas-based oil subsidiary, has suspended shipments of heating oil for poor families in the United States, citing falling oil prices and the world economic crisis, the nonprofit organization that distributes the fuel said Monday.
The controversial program gave fuel from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government to 200,000 households in 23 [...]

Rowan’s EDC exploring the possibilitiesCould Duke Energy’s $50 million plan to put energy-producing solar panels on hundreds of rooftops across North Carolina help generate jobs in Rowan County?
The Duke plan, which was approved last week by the state Utilities Commission, is just one example of the growth in the “green” or alternative energy sector that [...]

A consortium of governments will build a groundbreaking fusion power plant in France for a price in excess of €5 billion. After decades of discouraging setbacks, plasma physics has made jaw-dropping recent progress. Could it save the world?
Something went wrong during reactor experiment number 23,995. The fusion process started, continued for a second, but suddenly [...]

FOREIGN investors are driving up the value of Australian uranium stocks amid increased world demand for nuclear power.
As spot prices of dirty greenhouse fuels such as oil and coal fell dramatically in December, uranium prices rallied to six-month highs.
The rollout of fourth generation nuclear power stations in China, India and Europe has placed a floor [...]

Reuters
Russia accused Ukraine of stealing gas destined for the rest of Europe today, a day after cutting supplies to its neighbour in a contract dispute.
The volumes Russian export monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM) said Ukraine was siphoning off were small, but the accusation suggested Moscow was in no mood for compromise in a re-run of a 2006 [...]

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — The year of 2008 has seen the United States taking critical steps in developing renewable energy to meet the national goal of achieving 25 percent renewable energy by 2025.
But most important of all is that the November election of Barack Obama as the next U.S. [...]

BAGHDAD — Iraq announced on Wednesday that it would begin a second round of bids to license international oil companies to develop 11 oil and gas fields or groups of fields.
Iraq’s oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, said at a news conference that he hoped that these fields could be producing 2 to 2.5 million barrels of [...]

BAGHDAD, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Iraq will put 10 oil fields up for tender in a new round of bidding for international contracts that opens on Wednesday, the oil minister said.
In comments on state-owned Iraqiya TV late on Monday night, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said the fields would include “giant discovered but undeveloped oil [...]

Investors respond to a weaker dollar, rising stock prices and grim economic reports.
By Ben Rooney, CNNMoney.com staff writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The price of oil fell Tuesday, after a big rally in the previous session, as dour economic reports darkened the outlook for already weak demand for oil and gasoline.
A weaker dollar and rising stock [...]