OPEC may raise output to check prices
Isfahan: Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, OPEC's main producers, have said the group is likely to raise the production ceiling by 500,000 barrels a day by way of calming a nervous international oil market.

The comments from the two countries have come ahead of the ministerial meeting in the central Iranian city of Isfahan of the 10-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Increasing production above the official ceiling on 27 million barrels a day would have only an inconsequential impact as OPEC is already producing about 700,000 barrels above its quota.

Prices have shot up nearly 20 per cent in the past five weeks, to around USD 54 a barrel in New York, and have put pressure on the 11-nation OPEC to take steps to cool the market.
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Crude futures stick to $55 barrel mark
Singapore: Crude futures edged above USD 55 a barrel, with traders unimpressed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait's call for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production quotas.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose six cents to USD 55.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Asia. Heating oil prices rose by less than a cent to USD 1.5372 a gallon.

While not committing to an immediate increase in production, The Saudi oil minister pledged that Saudi Arabia - OPEC's largest producer-exporter, will pump more oil later this year to ensure the market is adequately supplied.
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Russian O&G giants Gazprom and Rosneft to merge
Moscow: A planned merger between Russian natural-gas monopoly Gazprom and the state-owned oil company Rosneft will take place by June this year, according to the Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko.

The long-awaited merger, slowed by a court decision in the politically charged Yukos case, will give the Kremlin a controlling stake in a major player in the world energy market and lift the ban on foreigners owning its shares.

Gazprom is the world's largest natural gas producer and supplies a quarter of Europe's gas.
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