The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) has approved the expansion of its crude oil pipeline's capacity to 1.4mn barrels per day (b/d).

Following the rejection of competing offers, BP has picked a buyer for most of its upstream Pakistani assets, as the company continues to make progress on its asset-divestment programme.

State-run oil and gas monopoly Saudi Aramco expects to start producing natural gas from new northern onshore fields and offshore Red Sea fields after 2015.

Valero is preparing to restart its Aruba refinery, which has been mothballed since July 2009. Changes to the tax code and an improving US fuels market have created the potential for increased profits at the site, raising the possibility that Valero may not now have to sell the facility.

For the first time in history, a manmade spacecraft has reached the outer edge of our solar system and will soon enter interstellar space. Now about 10.8 billion miles from the sun, NASA's Voyager 1 probe has crossed into an area where the velocity of the hot ionized gas, or plasma, emanating directly outward from the sun has slowed to zero.

Commodity producers drag, and Royal Bank hurt by rating downgrade

Microsoft will take yet another stab at the iPad's supremacy by demoing Windows 7 tablets at CES 2011, according to theNew York Times. Microsoft chairman and CEO Steve Ballmer will reportedly showcase devices from Samsung and Dell as well as other manufacturers at the show. Apparently Microsoft's encouraging partners to build apps for these devices focusing on HTML5.

No surprise on monetary policy, although Fed still sounds dour on conditions

A rumor that Verizon Wireless will unveil an iPhone on its LTE post-3G network is making the rounds in the blogosphere. Meanwhile, a photo posted on the Web depicting of an iPhone with the words"Verizon LTE"on the upper left hand corner of the screen is generating some controversy.

U.S. consumer stocks lag, despite upbeat report on retail sales