The United States, China and India are moving to assert control over the sea lanes through which they receive critical energy supplies amid fears in Beijing of a US blockade of the Malacca Strait in the event of a crisis over Taiwan, experts said.

The United States at present has vast control over the major so-called "choke points" on the world's sea lanes, said experts at a recent forum in Washington.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- When Jiang Dama throws open her curtains each morning in the gritty northern China oil town of Daqing, she's confronted by the sight of a four-story-high ``nodding donkey'' pumping away in the garden of her walk-up apartment building.

Jiang, 72, a retired oil worker, says she finds the presence of the oil pump, known in China as a kowtow machine, reassuring.

``As long as it keeps kowtowing,'' said Jiang, ``I know this town can survive.''

Daqing, the largest oilfield in China, has been in production since 1959 and was once a metaphor for the strength and self-reliance of Mao Zedong's New China. Today, it symbolizes the country's energy crisis: soaring demand and stagnant or declining domestic production.

By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING - Venezuela plans to export 500,000 barrels of oil a day to China within five years, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday.

Chavez arrived in Beijing earlier in the day at the start of a trip aimed at forging stronger energy ties between the two countries. He plans to sign agreements to boost China's investment in oil-rich Venezuela with joint projects in petroleum, telecommunications, farming and railways.

Discussions over energy co-operation are set to dominate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's visit to China, which began on Tuesday.

Oil producing Venezuela wants to reduce its reliance on the US, to which it exports most of its oil despite the two countries' ideological differences.

China offers a lucrative alternative market, as Beijing needs oil supplies to maintain its rapid economic growth.

By Jessica Jaganathan Wed Aug 16, 9:08 PM ET

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singaporean Kom Mam Sun ran his Nissan truck on biodiesel fuel for two years to test his business idea of turning used cooking oil from restaurants into fuel for vehicles.

The experiment was such a success that the 32-year-old entrepreneur opened his first biodiesel plant in June and has already made S$50,000 ($31,600) in profits.

NUEVA VALENCIA, Philippines (AFP) - The Philippines has said that a massive oil spill could get much worse without urgent help to lift a stricken tanker, still loaded with fuel, off the ocean floor.

The spill, which has already devastated nature sites and covered miles of coastline in black sludge, has been caused by only a fraction of the oil on the doomed Solar I seeping out of the ship's hold, officials said.

Mathew Maavak, The Korea Herald
Crude oil has reached a point where the skeptics of yore have become the proselytes of tomorrow, readying the world when crude tops $100 per barrel.

That day is not far away though few saw it coming.

Only just six years back, crude was hawked off for as low as $10 per barrel, when producers pumped out whatever they could for hard currency in the aftermath of a serpentine financial crisis that slithered its way from Mexico to East Asia, emptying national coffers in the process.

Green Car Congress
China, already the world’s third largest ethanol producer, is planning on a dramatic expansion of its production and use of biofuels for transportation from about 1 million tonnes of ethanol and biodiesel in 2005 to 12 million tonnes in 2020. Twelve million tonnes of biofuels would represent about 15% of the transportation fuel pool in 2020.

In China, diesel consumption is twice that of gasoline. Therefore, of that 12 million tonnes of biofuels, China wants biodiesel to represent 8 million (about 2.4 billion gallons US), according to a recent report by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. With biodiesel production in 2005 at only 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes (30 million to 60 million gallons) that represents at least 3,900% growth in 15 years...

Stephen Leahy, Inter Press Service via Common Dreams
BROOKLIN, Canada - China, India and Brazil could cut their rapidly rising energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25 percent using existing energy efficient technologies.
Despite the potential cost savings, conservative bankers are reluctant to loan money to fund improvements in energy efficiency, an international study said Monday.

Japan Times
The contract Japanese oil developers signed in 2004 to tap Iran's giant Azadegan oil field could be terminated in September with no major progress in the project, and Iran may strike a new deal with energy-hungry China.

Full Article:
Iran plays China card with Japan on oil deal