November 17, 2009 - View historical price charts for benchmark crude, gasoline, diesel, gasoil, HSFO, ULSD, jet fuel, naphtha & fuel oil grades: May 11-November 10, 2009.

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November 16, 2009 - Oil prices in the $75-$78/barrel range are "good" and would not hinder the global economic recovery, OPEC president Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos said November 16.

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November 11, 2009 - Nigeria's crude oil production has topped 2 million b/d after dropping to the lowest levels in more than two decades this summer as producers restart shuttered oil output following an amnesty agreement between the government and key militant leaders.

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November 5, 2009 - 2009 has seen a welcome resurgence in Russian oil production after 2008 witnessed the first decline in output since the lowly days of 1999.

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October 29, 2009 - Commodity index funds, currently the subject of much controversy for their perceived role in increasing both energy prices and energy price volatility, have allowed a wide range of financial investors access to energy markets.

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October 21, 2009 - Chinese energy companies may be state-owned but they are encouraged to compete with each other. Sinopec and PetroChina are going head-to-head, but this might not be to the benefit of consumers though.

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October 9, 2009 - India imported an estimated 11.165 million mt of crude in August, or an average of 2.64 million b/d, emerging out of a trough in June and July, the latest oil ministry data showed.

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September 29, 2009 - The average cost of bunkers has dropped around 39% in the leading bunkering ports of the world from last October 1, according to Platts data, leading some in the tanker industry to expect falls in 2010 Worldscale flat rates.

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August 28, 2009 - The changing landscape of oil in the run-up to - and since - the onset of recession in many of the world's major economies goes beyond simple prices.

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August 11, 2009 - The steady rise in the cost of bunker fuels this year has further eroded shipowners' earnings across all the segments of the tanker industry, sources said August 7.

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July 21, 2009 - Small and medium-sized energy companies' ability to raise capital is shrinking as banks consolidate their lending on established customers with large asset bases. This is placing a large constraint on a traditionally dynamic sector that plays a key role in the energy sector's fortunes.

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July 3, 2009 - Japan's domestic oil demand has continued down a slippery slope this year, forcing refiners in the country to drop their collective capacity utilization to a mere 64% by mid-June, unusually low even for the traditional peak maintenance season.

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June 19, 2009 - The fairly cold weather in January produced firm demand for North Sea tonnes of propane, as during the winter months propane is primarily used as a heating fuel in Northwest Europe.

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May 13, 2009 - The Canadian oil sands sector is searching for renewal based on consolidation, lower costs and a firmer crude price. But US environmental legislation threatens the industry's sole external market.

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April 15, 2009 - If the events of 2008 can teach the soothsayers of the oil industry anything, it must surely be that theirs is a near-impossible task, as oil prices rose further than anyone would have thought possible, then promptly fell even further and even faster.

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January 12, 2009 - Diesel shared the steep climbs then precipitous falls of the rest of the oil complex in 2008, but the landmark transition for the driving fuel was its supplanting of gasoline as the defining component in the oil barrel.

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September 17, 2009 - The wind energy sector in Mexico, like the rest of the country's renewable energy industry, has been stymied for years by a national policy vacuum. But things are changed rapidly, and the country's wind power in particular is beginning to realize its potential.

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August 17, 2009 - The Obama administration announced in mid-August that it would provide $2.3 billion in tax credits for companies that build wind turbines, advanced batteries and other low-carbon energy equipment in the US.

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August 3, 2009 - The EU Emissions Trading Scheme is likely to be net long on EU Allowances by 126 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent overall during its 2008-2012 Phase II period, according to analysis released July 22 by Barclays Capital.

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June 22, 2009 - Financing conditions remain "tricky" for independent power projects, sources told Platts in June, with the differing expectations of generation equipment suppliers and power offtakers adding to the complexity of project development.

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May 28, 2009 - Despite the speed with which the government wants to act -- the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- includes a goal of spending 50% of the $787 billion allocated by the legislation within 120 days from when it is signed into law -- many hurdles and unanswered questions remain, even though more than three-quarters of the 120 days have already passed since the bill was signed on February 17, 2009.

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May 13, 2009 - A surge of acquisition activity gripped mainland China in the second half of April. The Hong Kong-listed investor Citic Pacific agreed to sell its 20% equity interest in the northern generating company North United Power, while France's EDF got approval to buy equity in a coal-fired mainland generating plant and the country's largest listed generator, Huaneng Power International, agreed to buy several assets from its parent companies.

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April 27, 2009 - Electricity consumption has collapsed almost without exception across Central and Eastern Europe in response to the economic crisis, according to data compiled by Platts. Monthly consumption figures for the period from December 2008 to this March compared with the same months a year earlier for the nineteen markets covered by the newsletter underline the severity of the recession on the region's economies.

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April 2, 2009 - Emissions of CO2 in the EU in 2008 will be slightly above the 2.083 billion metric ton cap set by the European Commission in 2007, leaving electricity utilities and the EU's heavy industry sector with an overall short position in the books of EU Allowances (EUAs) at the end of last year despite the economic downturn, the carbon market's leading analysts said in the week ending March 20.

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March 25, 2009 - Uranium sellers appear resigned to watch the spot market price continue to drift downward for at least the next several weeks. "I don't see any reason that the slide won't continue. Right now I don't know what it will take for the price to go up," said one uranium seller.

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February 18, 2009 - The European Commission hopes that injecting €3.5 billion into critical energy infrastructure projects like grid upgrades, gas pipelines, offshore wind and carbon capture and storage will help to drag the EU economy out of recession.

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February 5, 2009 - The omens for wind power are very good, and there is cause to believe that the EU's 2020 targets in this area will be exceeded. But as capacity grows, it may be wind's impact on electricity prices that presents the most immediate problem.

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January 21, 2009 - Predicting future supply and demand for electricity is no mean feat. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its preliminary Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) 2009, published in December 2008, provides a benchmark projection for the business-as-usual case.

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January 15, 2009 - US House of Representatives leadership have unveiled their proposed $825 billion economic stimulus legislation, which includes $32 billion to transform the nation's electricity grid and boost renewable energy resources.

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October 21, 2009 - Chinese energy companies may be state-owned but they are encouraged to compete with each other. Sinopec and PetroChina are going head-to-head, but this might not be to the benefit of consumers though.

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September 7, 2009 - Renewable biogas could replace a significant amount of natural gas in Europe's gas grids. But turning raw biogas into grid quality biomethane is expensive. All sorts of barriers remain to get decentralized biogas production into a grid designed for natural gas from just a few sources.

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July 21, 2009 - Small and medium-sized energy companies' ability to raise capital is shrinking as banks consolidate their lending on established customers with large asset bases. This is placing a large constraint on a traditionally dynamic sector that plays a key role in the energy sector's fortunes.

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June 30, 2009 - Ever since the Barnett Shale formation in North Texas proved to be one of the most prolific natural gas plays in North America, producers have been flocking to other shales from Appalachia to the Gulf Coast in hopes of extracting the trillions of cubic feet of gas believed to be trapped beneath.

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May 21, 2009 - National Grid has explained its plans for converting a pipeline into a carbon dioxide line to the industry. While repurposing depreciated assets needs no justification, there are plenty of questions still to be answered.

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April 2, 2009 - Emissions of CO2 in the EU in 2008 will be slightly above the 2.083 billion metric ton cap set by the European Commission in 2007, leaving electricity utilities and the EU's heavy industry sector with an overall short position in the books of EU Allowances (EUAs) at the end of last year despite the economic downturn, the carbon market's leading analysts said in the week ending March 20.

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March 9, 2009 - The coal seam gas (CSG) industry in Australia's northeast has undergone a startling transformation over the past decade, evolving into a hot spot for international merger and acquisition (M&A) activity as major players jostle for massive untapped resources to underpin LNG projects.

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February 24, 2009 - In February 2008, as frigid weather gripped most of North America, demand for natural gas soared and prices bounced between $8 and $9/MMBtu -- by no means a record, but historically high nonetheless.

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January 30, 2009 - It is becoming increasingly likely that the global economic crisis will result in substantially lower demand for gas in Asia over the next few years than was previously expected. As ever, the impact of the downturn will not be felt evenly across the region, with the most commercially viable gas projects likely to proceed and some expanding economies continuing to seek out new sources of imports.

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January 23, 2009 - When Russia reopened the taps on January 20 and gas flowed into Slovakia once more, the relief was palpable. But it was not long before mutterings in Kiev began to denounce the deal.

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August 20, 2009 - After several weeks of questioning where coal prices are headed, Asian thermal coal buyers are now convinced of a short term softening in Newcastle and Kalimantan coal prices due to various triggers -- chief of which are their perceptions that Indonesia still has a lot more coal to dispose of this year and China will decelerate its steam coal imports in the second half of 2009.

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June 4, 2009 - Alpha Natural Resources' planned purchase of Foundation Coal Holdings is another instance of coal companies seeking to cut costs, improve price positions and strengthen creditworthiness through combinations, coal veterans attending the Southern States Energy Board presentations in May told Platts.

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April 30, 2009 - Spot metallurgical coal prices made further three-month declines of about 17% for some benchmark grades after the huge correction in the first quarter to largely converge with 2009 benchmark fiscal year settlements heard done in March for PCI coal and later for hard coking coal supplied by top seaborne exporter BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance.

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March 9, 2009 - The coal seam gas (CSG) industry in Australia's northeast has undergone a startling transformation over the past decade, evolving into a hot spot for international merger and acquisition (M&A) activity as major players jostle for massive untapped resources to underpin LNG projects.

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September 29, 2009 - The average cost of bunkers has dropped around 39% in the leading bunkering ports of the world from last October 1, according to Platts data, leading some in the tanker industry to expect falls in 2010 Worldscale flat rates.

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August 11, 2009 - The steady rise in the cost of bunker fuels this year has further eroded shipowners' earnings across all the segments of the tanker industry, sources said August 7.

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October 1, 2009 - Breathing the life back into the European olefins industry in 2009 after the harrowing Q4 of 2008 proved to be a hard challenge for both producers and consumers alike, requiring a great deal of discipline, commitment and patience.

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March 3, 2009 - Styrene monomer production issues have caused an imbalance in Europe's styrenics supply chain, pushing benzene-styrene spreads to above $400/mt the week ended February 27 and leading to margin losses on polystyrene production.

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October 13, 2009 - In contrast to those who express concerns about future inflationary pressure, Jim Steel, chief commodities analyst at HSBC, believes that fear of upward inflationary pressure is not the issue driving gold prices.

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July 20, 2009 - Looking at the roller-coaster fortunes of the steel industry over the last year, it comes as no surprise to those supplying steelmakers with raw materials that their own destinies have been turned upside down by the financial turmoil of the last eight months.

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June 4, 2009 - It's one year since the Platts daily iron ore assessment was launched, giving the global mining and steelmaking communities a physical benchmark by which to discuss, negotiate, reference and settle physical iron ore deals.

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March 23, 2009 - As 18% -- or 6.5 million mt/year -- of global aluminum production is being curtailed amid a 60% decline in London Metal Exchange aluminum prices, analysts and corporate officials still say more output cuts are needed, particularly in the Western World.

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