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In the midst of a recession, Spain has moved to cut subsidies to the solar-power sector, but investors oppose the measure saying it will result in loan defaults by solar-energy companies and further write-downs for Spanish banks.

As part of its efforts to raise funds to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP PLC will sell its natural-gas-liquids business in Canada. It is expected the assets will sell for at least $1 billion.

To raise funds to pay for costs stemming from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP PLC may be considering selling natural-gas assets in the North Sea. The fields are valued at $1 billion.

PepsiCo Inc. will buy OAO Wimm-Bill-Dann, a Russian producer of dairy products and fruit juices, for $5.4 billion and the assumption of $1 billion in debt. The price of $33 per share represents a 32% premium over Wimm-Bill-Dann's 30-day average trading price.

To cover costs resulting from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP PLC will sell its 60% stake in Argentina's Pan American Energy to Bridas Corp. for $7.06 billion. Bridas already owns 40% of Pan American.

According to a federal probation officer, BP acted negligently prior to a North Slope oil spill in 2009, which violated the company's probation resulting from a Prudhoe Bay oil spill in 2006. A U.S. District Court was asked to revoke BP's probation, possibly resulting in new penalties and the enforcement of BP's conviction.

In interview, BP PLC's Chief Executive Bob Dudley discusses his company's dividend and capital expenditures in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Excluding clean-up costs, BP's third-quarter net profit jumped 18% to $5.53 billion, while revenue was up 10% at $74.65 billion.

A group of Israeli oil companies led by U.S.-based Noble Energy Inc. will begin drilling the Leviathan natural-gas prospect off the coast of Israel. The site may hold up to 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Petroleum company BP PLC launched a $2.76 bil (2 bil euros) bond in Europe, the first time it has done so since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The bond follows an issue in the U.S. of $3.5 bil. BP is seeking to raise $6 bil in both European and U.S. markets in part to build bondholder confidence in the firm's liquidity after the spill.

Russian petroleum company TNK-BP Ltd. plans to make a formal bid for the Venezuelan and Vietnamese assets of BP PLC. TNK-BP is also considering purchasing BP's Algerian assets, but negotiations have not begun. BP, which is intending to sell assets of up to $30 bil to cover costs associated with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, did not comment.

Total S.A. Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie believes that petroleum exploration in the Gulf of Mexico will take approximately 20% longer in the aftermath of the BP PLC oil spill due to tougher regulations that will cause delays in project approvals. This in turn would cause petroleum companys' costs to rise.

Cairn Energy PLC found offshore natural gas in western Greenland, but the find is too small to be commercially viable. The discovery raises hopes that the area may hold enormous resources of up to 50 billion barrels of oil and gas.

BP PLC will pay $50.6 million in fines to settle 270 of the 709 charges brought against in October 2009 for failing to resolve safety issues at its Texas City, Texas, oil refinery after a 2005 explosion that killed 19 worker. BP will also invest $500 million to improve safety at the facility.

In an effort to raise funds to pay for claims resulting from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP PLC will sell non-core oil and gas assets to Apache Corp. for $7 billion. The assets represent about 2.3% of BP's global gas and oil production.

To help pay for compensation claims resulting from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP PLC is negotiating the sale of assets worth $10 billion to oil and gas company Apache Corp. BP has also cancelled dividend payments and cut capital expenditures to conserve cash.

A Dutch court ordered Russian oil giant OAO Rosneft to repay a $389 million debt to Yukos Capital S.a.r.l., a debt acquired during Rosneft's acquisition of some of Yukos's assets in an auction mandated by the Russian government. Courts in the U.S. and U.K. issued injunctions seeking the seizure of Rosneft's property to secure repayment of the debt.

BP PLC announced it will buy oil assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and deep-water regions of the Gulf of Mexico from Devon Energy Corp. for $7 billion. BP also said it will form a joint venture with Devon to develop BP's oil-sands assets in Alberta, Canada, after selling Devon a 50% interest in the project for $500 million.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced it will stop gasoline sales to Iran as part of U.S. efforts to force that country to abandon its nuclear program. Other international firms - including Ingersoll-Rand PLC, Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co. and Siemens AG - have halted trade with Iran. Despite being a major oil producer, Iran imports up to 40% of its refined petroleum products.

BP PLC received a $3 million fine from US authorities over safety violations at the oil refinery in Toledo, Ohio. The facilities are jointly owned by BP and Canada's Husky Energy Ltd.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC and PetroChina launched a bid of 3.3 billion Australian dollars for coal-seam gas producer Arrow Energy Ltd. Shell - owner of 30% of Arrow's coal-bed gas assets - would boost its position in the sector if the bid is accepted. Arrow's shares soared 46.8% to A$5.11 in Monday trading.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC swung to a lower-than-expected fourth-quarter profit of $1.96 billion, compared with a loss of $2.81 billion a year ago. The company posted a $427-million loss in its downstream business, which includes refining, marketing and retailing. Shell plans to decrease refining capacity 15% and eliminate about 1,000 jobs this year.

Heritage Oil PLC's partner, Tullow Oil PLC, is expected to acquire Heritage's share of an oil field in the Lake Albert Rift Basin in Uganda for $1.5 billion. Once in possession of the field, Tullow plans to sell half of the block to raise funds to build a refinery.

In a move to diversify its exports and tap into the growing Asian energy market, Russia inaugurated the first stage of a $12 billion pipeline to transport crude from Siberia to the Pacific Ocean. The pipeline, with capacity for 600,000 barrels a day, runs from Siberia to the Russian border with China. By 2014, the pipeline will be extended to the Russian port of Kozmino.

The U.K. will install about 6,400 turbines over the next 10 years to raise its offshore wind energy capacity to 32 gigawatts. The new wind farms will fulfill a quarter of the country's energy demand.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC expects to increase its cash flow by $4 billion and its liquefied natural gas output by 10% when it begins production at its Pearl and Qatargas-4 liquefied natural gas projects in Qatar in 2011. Article also discusses Shell's capital expenditures, cash flow, and expected earnings in 2010.

Eni S.p.A. will buy 50% of Heritage Oil PLC's working interest in two oil fields in Uganda for $1.3 billion. Heritage will use the proceeds to develop assets in Iraq's Kurdish region.

Affected by lower oil prices, BP PLC's third-quarter net profit fell 34% to $5.34 billion from $8.05 billion a year earlier. Sales dropped 36% to $66.22 billion. Replacement-cost profit declined 50% to $4.98 billion. Oil and gas output rose 7%. BP will slash costs by $4 billion this year.

Unable to gain support from Anglo American PLC's management, Xstrata PLC dropped its proposed 50-50 merger with the rival mining company. Article discusses how tightening credit is slowing down consolidation within the mining sector, and Xstrata's strategy for growth under chief executive Mick Davis.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC plans to be the first to deploy a floating facility to extract and process liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the recently-discovered Prelude and Concerto offshore gas fields in northwestern Australia. It is estimated that global LNG demand will double to about 370 million metric tons a year by 2020.

Affected by a slump in metal prices, Xstrata PLC reports a 77% first-half net profit drop to $643 million. Adjusted net profit fell 68% to $909 million. In June, Xstrata proposed a no-premium merger of equals with Anglo American PLC, but Anglo rejected the offer.

Marathon Oil Corp. will sell a 20% stake in its oil-field business in Angola to Chinese oil companies Cnooc International Ltd. and Sinopec Corp. for $1.3 billion. In related news, BP PLC announced it drilled a successful appraisal well in its Mad Dog development in the Gulf of Mexico, which could significantly increase production from the field.

Byline: GUY CHAZAN AND BEN CASSELMAN; WALL STREET JOURNAL NATURAL GAS BG Group PLC agreed to pay $1-billion (U.S.) for a stake in Dallas-based Exco Resources Inc.'s shale-gas properties in [...]

In a deal that gives it access to oil fields in Iraqi Kurdistan and offshore resources in West Africa, China's Sinopec Group will acquire Canada's Addax Petroleum Corp. for 8.27 billion Canadian dollars or C$52.80 a share. Addax produced 136,500 barrels a day in 2008, less than 2% of China's daily consumption.

Calling the terms unacceptable, mining firm Anglo American PLC rejected a merger offer from rival Xstrata PLC that would have created the world's third largest mining company with a value of $67 billion. Xstrata is expected to present another offer but is unable to pay a premium on Anglo's shares because of its limited capacity to take on more debt. Anglo's shares rose 4.6% on Monday to 16.98 pounds sterling, while Xstrata's fell 6.7% to 6.35 pounds.

OAO Lukoil will acquire a 45% stake in Total S.A.'s Dutch refinery Total Raffinaderij Nederland for $725 million. Total will retain 55% ownership. The refinery processes 153,000 barrels a day, mostly Russian crude. Lukoil plans to increase its global refining capacity by more than 70% by 2016.

In response to plummeting natural gas demand, OAO Gazprom will cut capital expenditures for this year 22% to $16 billion. Gazprom is also considering delaying production at its Bovanenkovo natural gas field in Siberia, with annual expected capacity of 140 billion cubic meters.

Byline: GUY CHAZAN PETROLEUM Sinopec in talks to buy explorer Addax, as crude prices surge LONDON -- Sinopec, SHI-N the Chinese state oil company, is in talks to acquire Addax [...]

Royal Dutch Shell PLC's new chief executive Peter Voser announced changes to adapt to current market conditions, streamline operations, and reduce costs. Shell plans to merge its exploration and production units, and gas and power and oil sands units into two new divisions. A new company will be created to plan major projects. Shell's downstream division will be expanded to include trading and alternative energy.

ENERGY Russian oligarch becomes CEO of BP unit MOSCOW and LONDON -- BP PLC asked one of its Russian billionaire partners to take over as acting chief of their TNK-BP [...]

OIL AND GAS Russia-EU summit reality: Behind the bravado, the bear is worried The latest round of pipeline politics between Moscow and the European Union masks a new reality: Changes [...]

ENERGY Shell told to stop 'gravy train' Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, suffered a stunning rebuke yesterday when nearly 60 per cent of investors who voted, rejected [...]

Byline: GUY CHAZAN AND RUSSELL GOLD; WALL STREET JOURNAL STAFF ENERGY Big Oil still 'printing money' despite slump in crude prices Western oil majors have taken a hit from the [...]

Affected by a drop in the price of oil, BP PLC reports a first-quarter net profit drop of 64% to $2.56 billion, and a drop of 47% in revenue to $48.09 billion. Quarterly production increased about 2.5% to over four million barrels a day. The company cut $1 billion in costs during the quarter, and expects additional savings from falling equipment-leasing rates.

Topping TNK-BP's offer of 430 pence a share, OAO Gazprom Neft is offering 500 pence a share to acquire a stake in Russian oil firm Sibir Energy PLC. Gazprom's offer values Sibir at about $2.8 billion. It is speculated that Gazprom's aim is to acquire enough stock to block other investors from buying substantial shares in Sibir.

BP PLC's Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, launched a bid to acquire a stake in Russian oil company Sibir Energy PLC. The offer, which is supported by Sibir's minority shareholders, values the company at $2.3 billion.

Italy's ENI S.p.A. will sell its 20% stake in Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft to OAO Gazprom for $4.2 billion. The news were welcome by ENI's shareholders who worried that, without the sale, the company would see its credit rating cut. ENI's shares dropped 1.3% to 14.61 euro in Monday trading.

Byline: GUY CHAZAN ENERGY Eni SpA to sell Russian asset to Gazprom Italian oil and gas company ENI SpA today will sign a $4.2-billion (U.S.) deal to sell its stake [...]

Falling demand for natural gas may cause OAO Gazprom to trim its production investment budget for 2009, which the company had fixed at $27.64 billion in December. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered to extend state aid to the company. Article discusses Gazprom's expected revenue in 2009, production cuts, credit rating, net debt, and raising of capital.

Russia's fourth oil producer OAO Surgutneftegaz plans to acquire a 21% stake in Hungarian national energy company MOL Nyrt for 1.4 billion euro. The stake was bought from Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG. Article addresses concerns that Russia may be using its energy resources to gain political influence in Eastern Europe.

A new report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates says the recent cutbacks in oil production and project postponements will cause oil production capacity to fall 7.6 million barrels a day from a forecasted production capacity of 109 million barrels a day by 2014. In the near future, oil companies will not be able to increase production to meet rising demand when the global economy recovers, resulting in a surge in oil prices.