VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The United Nations Security Council imposed targeted sanctions on Friday on Yemen's former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and two senior Houthi rebel leaders for threatening the peace and stability of the country and obstructing the political process.

A surge in refining profits boosted quarterly results at Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N), helping to offset declining oil and gas production and falling crude oil prices.

There is no need to panic at the recent drop in oil prices, the secretary general of OPEC said on Wednesday, saying low prices would curb competing supplies and require the group to pump far more by the end of the decade.

A steep sell-off in energy company stocks in recent months due to falling oil prices may be overdone and there are some potential bargains to be had, Barron's financial newspaper said in its latest edition on Sunday.

More than a dozen oil producers have joined to lobby the federal government to reverse the 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude exports, a move that supporters say would create jobs and keep the energy boom alive, a spokesman for one of the companies and a lobbyist for another one said on Friday.

Gulf Arab oil exporters will have to reform their state spending and make cuts in some areas because of weak oil prices, Kuwaiti Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh said on Saturday.

Slumping energy shares drove the recent U.S. stock market selloff more than any other major group, so investors are turning to next week's slate of earnings to see if the sector can pull itself out of the pit.

Asian shares sagged on Thursday after a retreat on Wall Street and falling crude oil prices rekindled investor anxiety over slowing global growth, while a mixed picture on Chinese manufacturing failed to impress markets.

Even the wildest markets nearly always draw opportunists looking for profitable ways to play them. But recent volatility has hit such a level that the strongest-nerved are thinking twice.

General Electric Co (GE.N) posted higher quarterly net income on Friday, helped by sales of its jet engines and oil and gas equipment.

Saudi Arabia effectively started a global oil price war this month aimed at quickly denting U.S. oil output. Slowing a U.S. drilling boom, however, could take more than a year.

Still haunted by its failed attempt to prevent a steep drop in oil prices by slashing production by almost three quarters in the 1980s, the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is determined not to make the same mistake again.

As Iraqi militants advanced on Baghdad with M-16s and stolen tanks in June, most investors and traders in the jittery oil markets believed oil prices would spike even higher.

European stocks reversed early losses on Monday as airline shares gained after crude oil prices fell to near a four-year low, though broad dollar weakness and a jump in gold signaled investor concern over global economic health.

World oil prices are set to fall further, extending a months-long rout as Saudi Arabia is unlikely to make deep enough production cuts to erase a growing surplus of supply, according to Gary Ross, chief executive of PIRA Energy Group.