Despite its huge crude reserves, the South American OPEC member relies on hydro-electricity for 70 percent of its power needs, and a drought has hit supply since late 2009.

The possibility that Mexico’s oil and gas exports to the U.S. could go to zero within seven years looked very real.

A big but so far unspecified chunk of the cash will go on programmes to prevent loss of tropical forests, which is a major source of greenhouse gases "

As The New York Times reported recently, "China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain, and the United States last year to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels. ... These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines, and other gear manufactured in China." "

Also known as global warming, climate change has drawn widespread concern in recent years as temperatures around the world rise, threatening to harm crops, spread disease, increase sea levels, change storm and drought patterns and cause polar melting. "

Back in October, I participated in the 2nd International Biophysical Economics Conference at SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, New York. Charlie Hall had written to me, inviting me to come and give a talk. Specifically, he wanted me to go back to my post from January 2008 called Peak Oil and the Financial Markets: A Forecast for 2008 and explain why my forecasts had turned out pretty close to correct, while many others widely missed the mark. The title he suggested for the talk was Delusions of Finance. "

■ We have no data on 90% of most important oil and gas fields.

The state-controlled firm has been a chief driver behind Russia's recent surge in oil output, which last month remained above 10 million barrels per day, mainly thanks to Rosneft's huge newly commissioned Arctic Vankor field.

CNOOC has been a noticeable absentee from overseas M&A since it paid $2.7 billion for a stake in French oil major Total's African Akpo field in 2006. A year earlier, it was bumped by a U.S. political backlash from buying U.S.-based oil company Unocal.

Firstly, audio of the Hayward interview is now online here. There are some other interesting comments that weren’t picked up in the print reports, including the world’s ability - and particularly China and India’s - to handle high oil prices.

Biodiesel has the potential to become a significant industry sector in Indonesia, supported by two of its most valuable assets: its oil palm plantations, and more importantly, its people. Indonesia currently produces approximately 20 million tons of CPO per year from 7 million hectares of oil palm plantation, of which approximately 80 percent is exported.

The lines between energy and agriculture are becoming more blurred. As science advances, the use of biofuels in most parts of the world has continued to increase. One thing that has gradually come to stay and is in recently times attracting significant foreign investment in Ghana is energy crops. The last four years has seen Norwegian, Brazilian, Dutch, Swedish, German and British firms all competing for farmland to grow energy crops in different parts of the country.