CONOCOPHILLIPS

Gasoline and diesel prices fell in the Portland, Oregon, market as two refineries finished seasonal overhauls, traders said.

Increasing shale play in the region has environmentalist increasingly concerned and towns thrilled.

Wholesale gasoline differentials gained 0.5 cent a gallon on Monday on a malfunction at a Los Angeles refinery, traders said.

ConocoPhillips the third-largest U.S. oil company, reported a much higher-than-expected quarterly profit on strength in its refining business, sending its shares up 2 percent.

Stock index futures rose on Wednesday after the S&P fell 2 percent in the previous session as optimism about corporate earnings offset concerns about an upcoming meeting of European leaders to tackle the region's debt crisis.

Stock index futures rose on Wednesday after the S&P fell 2 percent in the previous session as optimism about corporate earnings offset concerns about the results of a meeting of European leaders to tackle the region's debt crisis.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open for equities on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, for the Dow Jones and for the Nasdaq 100 up 0.6 to 0.8 percent.

The companies that are expected to see active trade on Wednesday are: Automatic Data Processing, Boeing, Sprint Nextel, Amazon.com, Ford Motor, Lockheed Martin, FMC Technologies, Akamai Technologies, CA, ConocoPhillips, Exelon Corp and General Dynamics Corp.

The head of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s China business has resigned citing personal reasons, after the world's largest retailer ran into trouble with Chinese authorities leading to store closures and employee detentions.

All told, BP and its partners will invest nearly £10 billion ($15.7 billion) in North Sea oil and gas properties over the next five years.

Libya's top oil body is pursuing international oil firms for bills worth around $6 billion that were left unpaid this year due to U.N. sanctions imposed in March, a source in the National Oil Corporation (NOC) told Reuters this week.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday that the government would strictly control new petrochemical projects around northern China's Bohai Bay, as energy giant ConocoPhillips apologized for an oil spill there.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 1 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.79 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.97 percent at 0900 GMT (5 a.m. ET).

Tropical Storm Lee barreled into southern Louisiana's coast on Sunday, as New Orleans prepared for one of the biggest tests of its flood defenses since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.

A ConocoPhillips subsidiary, an oil spill by which polluted 5,500 square kilometres of water in China's northern Bohai Bay, said it had already sealed off the leaks ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline.

Energy firms along the Eastern Seaboard scrambled on Monday to resume operations after Hurricane Irene left 5.5 million customers without power.

Hurricane Irene knocked out power to 3.3 million homes and businesses along the East Coast, forced two nuclear plants to shut and idled oil ports and refining as it approached New York City early on Sunday.

Hurricane Irene knocked out power to 3.3 million homes and businesses along the U.S. East Coast, forced two nuclear plants to shut and idled oil ports and refining as it approached New York City early on Sunday.

An oil spill by a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips has polluted 5,500 square kilometres of water in China's northern Bohai Bay, China's marine authorities and state media said on Friday, adding the company will have to pay for the spill.

China's maritime authority is preparing to sue U.S. firm ConocoPhillips over an oil spill in China's northern Bohai Bay, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

A unit of ConocoPhillips said it has found several small oil leaks in China's northern Bohai Bay two months after an oil spill began, while the Chinese government again urged the company to halt the leak by the end of this month.