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Teen solves centuries-old math problem
Oil prices stabilize after record jump.
Overnight Monday, the global price of a barrel of crude oil made its largest jump in a single day since 2000, increasing more than $25. Analysts blamed the increase on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout the U.S. government was contemplating.
But Tuesday, oil prices dropped slightly, ending a five-day rise, and in Asian markets oil increased just slightly Wednesday. The recent increases in oil prices are the first in more than two months after oil fell in August and September from record highs in July.
Despite a settling of oil prices, analysts are still watching the U.S. financial bailout and the value of the U.S. dollar, Australia's The Age reported.
The decline on Tuesday was around $3 a barrel, much larger than the $1 or so increase Wednesday. Prices are still nowhere near as high as they were in the beginning of July at $150 per barrel, U.K. OilVoice reported.
The U.S. dollar is being directly linked to the value of commodities. The trend appears such that whenever the dollar gains strength, the price of oil drops, and that is what happened Tuesday, when hopes rose that the bailout might boost the economy.
With such strong concerns over the economy, analysts have warned that worldwide prices will likely fluctuate in the coming days and weeks, but legislation curbing speculation in the market could help stabilize prices to some degree.
RIL looks outside India.
Contrary to its past policy of remaining a domestic oil- and gas-focused company, India's Reliance Industries Ltd. announced it will explore assets in Latin America, the Middle East and the Far East, The Economic Times of India reported.
The announcement comes days after RIL said it began extracting from its D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin. Estimates are high for future production from that block. That gas, in addition to gas it hopes to find in other countries, plays a role in the plan to ease shortages and curb reliance on energy and fuel imports.
Reliance has 12 oil and gas assets in seven countries: Peru, Australia, Iraq, Yemen, Timor-Leste, Oman and Colombia. The company has decided to be more open to purchasing foreign assets, including smaller companies, said Reliance President and Chief Executive Officer P.M.S. Prasad, though it will not be looking in Russia, West Africa or Central Asian countries for assets to buy.
In Latin America RIL will focus on recovering heavy oil. Prasad said the oil would be used in RIL's refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat state.
The country is also looking at nuclear energy, and RIL is exploring renewable energy sources including solar and wind power.
New exploration permitted in New Zealand.
Nine oil and gas permits were awarded for onshore exploration in Taranaki region, and exploration will begin soon. Companies holding the permits for 20 of the wells pledged to begin drilling within five years, and four of those 20 wells already are scheduled to begin drilling in the next 24 months, National Business Review reported.
Like Canada, Australia and New Zealand have been seeing an increase in the profits from oil and gas permit bids as companies spend the money they made during the first six months of the year when oil prices skyrocketed.
Winners of the permits included a number of joint ventures. Todd Exploration partnered with Mighty River Power, Mosaic Oil joined local explorer L&M Petroleum, Rawson bid with Kea Petroleum, GB Energy bid with Green Gate Ltd. Hardie Energy and Greymouth Petroleum also won exploration permits.
During the bid, the government announced that soon additional areas would be made available for exploration, including the offshore Taranaki Basin and the onshore and offshore Canterbury Basin. Also, deepwater acreage in the Raukumara and Northland Basins will likely be released before the end of the year.
New Zealand and Australia faced gas shortages earlier this year and are working to encourage exploration to prevent such an event in the future.
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Closing oil prices, Sept. 24, 3 p.m. London
Brent Crude oil: $103.70
West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $107.80
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(e-mail: energy@upi.com)
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