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CALGARY, ALBERTA (MARKET WIRE) Nexen Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Kevin Reinhart as Senior Vice president and Chief Financial Officer effective January 1, 2009. Kevin will succeed Marvin Romanow, who will become President and Chief Executive Officer, following the retirement of Charlie Fischer at the end of this year.

SINGAPORE — oil prices fell below $53 to almost a two-year low Thursday in Asia as investors, egged on by plummeting stock markets, priced in lower crude demand from a global economic downturn that's shaping up as the worst in decades.

Drive around Iceland's capital city of Reykjavic on any cold night and look at the the houses and apartment buildings lining the streets. The first thing you may notice is how many windows are wide open, allowing the frigid outdoor air to mix with the warm indoor heat. In most places, the scene may seem a bit strange. But in a city that hosts the world's largest geothermal district heating system, it's a normal occurrence.

This country needs a good debate on energy policy. While there are many divergent views on what that policy should be, I thought it would be useful to begin my thoughts by identifying a set of "facts" on which most people can agree. So here goes.

Building on his commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the state's renewable energy capacity, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order S-14-08 (EO) to streamline California's renewable energy project approval process and increase the state's Renewable Energy Standard to 33 percent renewable power by 2020.

The 2009 U.S. federal renewable fuel standard (RFS) will be increased to 10.21 percent to ensuring that at least 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuels be blended into transportation gasoline. The energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) established the annual overall renewable fuel volume targets, reaching a level of 36 billion gallons in 2022.

Oilfield services company TOT energy and Korlea Invest have formed a joint venture company through which the companies will be able to extend their product and services portfolio in europe.

KBR has announced that it has been awarded a contract by Egypt Hydrocarbon Corporation to complete a pre-front end engineering design study for two polyethylene units at its proposed petrochemical complex. The complex will be located 25km from Suez, Egypt, near the Red Sea.

Repsol has been awarded exploration rights in Canada's Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Area, allowing the company to move forward with its plans to increase oil and gas finds and production in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

The board of natural gas producer XTO energy Inc. has approved $3.3 billion to cover development and exploration initiatives, the company says. (XTO)