China may boast the world’s largest potential reserves of shale gas but is likely to lose to Australia in the race to be second behind the US in bringing significant production on line.

India and China will study new ways to ease tensions along their ill-defined border, Chinese premier Li Keqiang said yesterday in his first foreign trip since taking office, which comes just weeks after a military standoff between the Asian giants in the Himalayas.

Apple is the world’s most valuable company, ever.

Apple, already the world’s most valuable company, has reached the $600bn level for the first time.

Apple, already the world’s most valuable company, has reached the $600bn level for the first time today.

China’s top two state oil firms have agreed to lift about 140,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Libya under term deals for 2012, set to raise China’s crude purchases from the North African exporter after supply disruptions last year.

World stock markets rose today, driven higher by a successful bond issue in Europe which eased worries over the continent’s sovereign debt crisis.

World stocks rebounded today as pledges by European officials to resolve the region’s debt problems once and for all helped soothe market jitters.

Firefighters fought for three hours to put out a blaze today at a major petrochemical refinery in the north-eastern Chinese city of Dalian, the second fire in two months at the facility, police and the company said.

Asian stocks markets were thrown into a tailspin today as flustered investors fearing a possible global recession continued to flee stocks.

Chinese energy firm PetroChina became the world's largest firm by market value today as its worth soared to more than one trillion US dollars.

Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $2m to settle regulators’ allegations about its handling of four public offerings, including PetroChina $2.9b sale in 2000.

Oil giant Shell today boosted its balance sheet with the sale of its stake in China’s largest refiner for $742m (€608m).

British oil giant BP PLC said it intends to sell its 2% stake in PetroChina via a bookbuilt placing of stock.

A GAS well blow-out in south-west China turned a 10 square mile area into a death zone, killing nearly 200 people as they slept or scrambled to escape a cloud of toxic fumes, officials and state media said yesterday.

Share prices closed the morning lower tracking the overnight falls on Wall Street amid caution in the lead up to the first anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks next week, dealers said.

Share prices closed the morning lower, pressured by Wall Street's overnight weakness following weak US retail sales data, dealers said.

BP announced yesterday that it has withdrawn from a project to build a 2,485-mile gas pipeline from northern China to Shanghai.

Oil giant Shell was today expected to become the latest energy group to come under pressure from environmentalists over its exploration policies.