1. "Fuel prices have risen after Central Asian countries – particularly Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia –banned fuel exports to Afghanistan until September," Azizullah Rozi, director of the state petroleum and gas enterprise, told IRIN in Kabul on 10 August.

2. Shell is the only other company to have built a commercial gas–to–fuel plant at Bintulu off the Malaysian coast. nRussia‘s Silver Wave Sputnik Petroleum Pte has signed a deal with Myanmar‘s state–owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, or MOGE, to explore and produce oil and gas in onshore B–2 block, official newspapers reported in Myanmar on Saturday, Reuters said.

3. "In the same way that commentators refer to the 1'00s as the ‘American Century‘, the early 21st century may be seen as the time when some in the developing world, led by India and China, come into their own" National Intelligence Council, US government think–thank âЂ¢ Majority Chinese control in the consortium dominating the oil industry of Sudan, whose government is accused of human rights abuses linked to massacres in the Darfur conflict. âЂ¢ Chinese ownership of 60% of a major Kazakhstan oil and gas enterprise, and plans to build a pipeline for Kazakh crude into China. âЂ¢ India‘s multibillion–dollar project to pipe in Iranian gas via Pakistan – a plan criticised this month by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. âЂ¢ Billion–dollar investments by India‘s main oil and gas enterprise in far–flung projects that include Australia, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Ivory Coast and Vietnam.

4. Chinese and Indian investments in countries and regions of US concern include India‘s multi billion dollar project to pipe in Iranian gas via Pakistan – a plan criticised this month by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; billion–dollar investments by India‘s main oil and gas enterprise in far–flung projects that include Syria – accused by Washington of failing to prevent insurgents from crossing its border into Iraq and of suppressing democracy in Lebanon.