Another late rally gave Wall Street a modest advance today despite a spike in oil prices and a lower-than-expected hike in the US gross domestic product that raised new questions about the economy.

Another late rally gave Wall Street a modest advance today despite a spike in oil prices and a lower-than-expected hike in the US gross domestic product that raised new questions about the economy.

Oil giant Shell said today that none of the senior executives ousted in the wake of its reserves crisis would receive annual bonuses for 2003.

Two American oil workers were killed when a speedboat full of gunmen fired on a boat carrying the employees in Nigeria’s violence-wracked oil delta, an army spokesman said today.

Two American oil workers were killed when a speedboat full of gunmen fired on a boat carrying the employees in Nigeria’s violence-wracked oil delta, an army spokesman said today.

Retailing giant Wal-Mart retained its number one rank among the US's largest publicly traded companies for the third year in 2003, with sales of almost $259bn (€209bn).

ISEQ-listed Tullow Oil has entered into an agreement with ChevronTexaco to acquire its 50% equity in the licence that contains the Orwell gas field (Block 50/26a).

ChevronTexaco Corp will resume the production of 23,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil this week. suspended last week in the wake of the abduction of 18 workers in southern Nigeria.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed to its highest level in 17 months today as strong earnings and merger news helped the stock market shake off a weak consumer spending report. The three main gauges posted a weekly and monthly gain.

US and UK-based oil majors have taken the largest portion of Iraq's second post-Saddam crude oil sell tender, companies have confirmed.

Six companies have agreed to buy 10 million barrels of Iraqi oil, marking the battered country’s first major oil export since the invasion by the US and Britain.

CRUDE oil rose for the third time in four sessions as war in Iraq and civil strife in Nigeria limit shipments from the countries, which normally produce about 6% of the world’s oil.

A huge fire has broken out today at ChevronTexaco’s main oil terminal, just days after unarmed village women ended a 10-day siege that crippled the oil giant’s Nigeria operations.

A group of women occupying a series of ChevronTexaco oil pipelines in southeastern Nigeria say they have freed their two hostages.

Women have stormed four more oil terminals in the Nigerian Delta, demanding jobs and rural development denied them by the government.

Hundreds of Nigerian women occupying a ChevronTexaco oil terminal have agreed to end their eight-day siege.

Local women have seized control of an oil rig in southeastern Nigeria, trapping about 700 workers.

The Dow Jones was higher midsession while the Nasdaq was down along with confidence in technology stocks ahead of most earnings reports, dealers said.

The Dow Jones has recorded its best close in nearly a year, according to the US Commerce Department.

Wall Street remained positive today and stocks enjoyed some slim gains in response to positive economic news and managed to offset some typical year-end tax selling.

Share prices posted slight gains on light volumes in early trade, with a lot of the buying interest concentrated in a few well-known names, with many market players absent ahead of the Christmas holidays, dealers said.

Energy Minister Brian Wilson has given official approval for a major oilfield which is expected to create around 1,000 jobs.

General Motors Corp and ChevronTexaco Corp said they have reached a multi-year research collaboration agreement to develop commercially viable petrol processing technologies for fuel cells.