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.

by Tom Whipple
This week the UN is to come up with a sanctions resolution that will keep Iran's two million barrels a day of exports flowing and at the same time convince Tehran to give up on uninspected nuclear enrichment.

Crafting such a resolution is likely to take some doing as the Chinese, who are more concerned about losing oil imports than whether or not Tehran comes up with an atomic bomb, have to sign off on any sanctions plan.

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 ALISON MUTLER,
BUCHAREST, Romania - Romania said Iranian troops opened fire from a warship and seized a Romanian oil rig Tuesday off the coast of
Iran, holding its workers in an incident stemming from a commercial dispute

Sergiu Medar, a national security adviser to Romanian President Traian Basescu, said the seizure resulted from a commercial dispute Iran is treating "in an extreme way." He gave no details.

By Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose to almost $72 a barrel on Monday as
Iran's supreme leader said the Islamic Republic would press on with its nuclear work, implying it will not heed a U.N. demand to stop enriching uranium.

The row over Iran's nuclear program has raised concern of disruption to oil flows from the world's fourth-largest exporter. Iran had said it would respond formally by Tuesday to Western incentives to halt enrichment.

JORGE BARRERA, Ontario Sun
Municipalities are facing a "perfect storm" once the era of cheap oil, cheap water and altered weather patterns hits with full force, says Ontario's environmental commissioner.

In a chilling speech to municipal leaders yesterday, Gord Miller said municipalities are not ready for the massive effect on communities.

"We are entering a period of consequences," said Miller. "Our present public policy is inadequate to deal with these immense problems that are upon us right now."

John Helmer, Mineweb
Russian energy and mining companies are preparing for the visit to Africa early next month of President Vladimir Putin. But the black backdrop of the visit, the first in half a century by a Russian head of state, is the increasingly aggressive reaction of the Bush administration in Washington to the combination of arms and business which the Russians are offering those whom the US considers to belong to its camp.

Daniele Ganser, ISN Security Watch (Switzerland)
Dr. Daniele Ganser is a senior researcher at the Center for Security Studies at the ETH in Zurich.
...Oil supply is less secure than it was 50 years ago. But at the same time, global demand for oil has been skyrocketing with no end in sight, considering the growing oil requirements from rapidly expanding economies such as those of China and India. "The Chinese government is well aware of peak oil," said Pang Xiongqi of the China University of Petroleum in Beijing in July 2005. Being the second largest oil consumer behind the US, the Chinese now consume seven Mm/d - a demand they cannot match by their domestic oil production of only 3.5 Mm/d. And, thus, like many other countries, they must import energy.

Mariam Karouny, The Washington Post
Iraq's new government risks being held to ransom by a dissident Shi'ite faction using its local clout in Basra to hobble vital oil exports, Iraqi officials and senior political sources said on Friday.

They warned that the locally powerful Fadhila party was threatening to have members in the oil industry stage a go-slow to halt exports through the key southern oil port if it did not win the concessions it wanted from Baghdad.