Rennie Petroleum Co. has filed for reorganization under federal bankruptcy law. Started in 1985 with a single service station, Rennie’s now has 24 convenience stores, compared with a peak of 40 in the mid-1990s.

According to a report by the Times-Dispatch, the company listed assets of $4.67 million and liabilities of $7.98 million. Liabilities include $3.76 million in unsecured, nongovernmental claims. The company listed its largest unsecured creditor as CITGO Petroleum Corp. of Tulsa, Okla., with a $3.3 million claim.
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India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Ashwini Kumar has invited global mining companies to invest in his country, while pointing out that a liberal policy had been formulated to facilitate the flow of overseas capital in the sector.

Addressing the chief executives of some of the largest mining companies of the world at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Kumar said a long-term iron ore exploration and export policy was also being framed to draw investments.
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Spending on mineral exploration in B.C. climbed to a record $265 million in 2006, nearly $200 million of that invested in north and central B.C., according to figures released by the province Friday.

It beats the previous record high in 2005 of $220 million, which was the most spent on mineral exploration in B.C. in nearly two decades, and dwarfs the $29 million spent on exploration in 2001.
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PAN AFRICAN MINING CORP. is pleased to report that it has just purchased four additional drill rigs for its exploratory programs in Madagascar. The rigs will be shipped from Canada as and when available over the next 30 days and are anticipated to be available for use on site in the coming months. The Company presently has two rigs already in operation, including a large Atlas-Copco CS14 wireline core drill being utilized at the Mountain of Gold Project in the Dabolava region of Madagascar’s central-west plateau.
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The opposition senators rapped the government on its petroleum pricing policy and staged a walk out resenting the lopsided response given by a minister to the criticism.

The opposition senators accused the government of dragging its feet in reducing the price of various petroleum products despite steep fall in oil prices at international level. The senators accused the government of trying to colleft revenue at the cost of consumers and also adding to windfall profits for the oil companies.

source news : www.khaleejtimes.com

Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, now depends 100 percent on imports of petroleum products due to the closure of its three refineries and vandalisation of pipelines, officials said.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said in a statement that about 30 million litres of petroleum products are consumed daily in the country while the capacity of its three refineries (located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna) is about 17 million litres or 56.6 percent of national need.
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Russia’s foreign minister denounced on Friday the detention of a Russian man accused of trying to sell highly enriched uranium to Georgian agents, calling it a “provocation.”

A government scientist, meanwhile, confirmed that a sample of the uranium sent to Russia was weapons-grade, but said the sample was too small to determine its origin, news agencies reported.

Igor Shkabura, deputy director of the Bochvar Inorganic Materials Institute, said the uranium sent by Georgia “could be used for military productions, including nuclear weapons,” according to ITAR-Tass. Read more » »

The head of the UN nuclear inspection agency said Friday that Iranian officials had said they planned to begin installing equipment next month in an industrial-scale plant to enrich uranium, escalating the country’s confrontation with the Security Council, which has demanded a full suspension of the production of nuclear material and authorized mild sanctions against the country.

The announcement by Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was coupled with a plea to both Tehran and Western nations for all sides to take a “timeout,” a request that appeared to be an effort to head off a larger confrontation in coming months. Read more » »

The head of the U.N. nuclear inspection agency said Friday that Iranian officials had told him that they planned to begin installing equipment next month in an industrial-scale plant to enrich uranium.

Such a move would intensify Iran’s confrontation with the Security Council, which has demanded a full suspension of the production of nuclear material, and has authorized mild sanctions.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced arrest of Russian citizen by Georgia last year for trying to sell enriched uranium as “a provocation,” Russian news agencies reported.

“Based on facts available for me, I can say that this is a provocation,” Lavrov said while speaking with reporters in Russia’s eastern city of Vladivostok on January 26.

“We would prefer problems of this kind to be tackled by experts… It has happened a year ago. Russian citizen was arrested, as far as I understand, with participation of the U.S. special services,” Lavrov said. Read more » »