According to Bloomberg, crude oil prices rose near record levels again because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned of a more severe hurricane season than originally forecast.

U.S. President George Bush says a modest increase in oil production by Saudi Arabia will not solve the problem of soaring gasoline prices in the United States.

London-based oil traded at all-time highs around USD 100 in Asia on Wednesday while New York oil rose above USD 101, boosted by an inflow of funds and ahead of an OPEC meeting next week.

Oil prices fell further on Wednesday amid a growing belief that the US economy is slowing and that energy demand will weaken as a result.

Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed a landmark agreement today to build a natural gas pipeline along the Caspian Sea coast that would strengthen Moscow's monopoly on energy exports from the resource-rich region.

Galp Energia, a Portuguese oil and gas company, said that it planned to bay natural gas from Venezuela and to help building a liquefaction plant there.

Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says crude prices, hovering close to $US100 a barrel, are still lower than the actual value.

The government of Iraq controls 95% of proceeds from the export of the country's oil, President Jalal Talabani said on Wednesday.

An offshore oil discovery and promising fields near the find could make Brazil to become one of the world's major exporters, but full-scale extraction is unlikely until 2013 and will be very expensive.

Brazil has discovered huge new petroleum reserves in its south that could turn the country into one of the biggest oil producers in the world, the Government and its state-controlled oil company announced.

There are fears that oil companies may be manipulating diesel prices because of the current inquiry by the competition watchdog into petrol price fixing.

Iraq's foreign minister said Friday his country could offer Russian oil and gas companies considerable advantages to operate in Iraq, and expects a deal later to clear 80% of Baghdad's Soviet-era debt.