NAIROBI, Sept. 2 -- A small plane carrying 17 passengers and crew members on a humanitarian mission crashed in a mountainous region of eastern Congo on Monday evening, and there appeared to be no survivors, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

The Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has condemned Tuesday's arrest and detention of its officers, community elders and some journalists at Iwherekan community, Delta State by soldiers guarding gas flaring sites operated by Shell.

Rising energy costs are here to stay, and consumers will have to live with them, says Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin.

The province's environment department has approved an 8,6km high-voltage powerline, with cables strung between 23m-high pylons, which will have a long-term visual impact on the historic and highly scenic overberg villages of Greyton and Genadendal.

THE Trinidad and Tobago government is to train a number of Ugandans in different sectors of the petroleum industry.

TWO thermal power plants with the capacity to generate 100 mega watts (MW) will be commissioned soon to supplement the dwindling hydropower generated at the Kiira and Nalubale power dams, in Jinja.

OUR four epileptic refineries are publicly owned. Despite years of 'Turn Around Maintenance', which gulps billions of Naira annually, they remain incredibly inefficient.

THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, accounts for 75 per cent or more, of revenue accruing to the Federation Account. The National Assembly and the anti-corruption agencies --EFCC and ICPC, must be unaware that NNPC, by virtue of the preponderance

A United States-based firm, Nevada Petroleum Resources Limited, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with Abia State Government, to build a refinery in the state at a cost of $100 million, with capacity to refine 20,000 barrels per

National leader of Ndokwa National Youth (world-wide), Comrade Friday Ossai Osanebi has declared that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Delta State was responsible for the tremendous transformation of the state.

ABSENCE of mega filling stations and product evacuation problems has been cited as being responsible for fuel scarcity in Warri and its environs in Delta State.

The cost of the R150bn Eskom plans to raise on capital markets over the next few years will rise unavoidably along with the other inputs into its expansion programme, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said yesterday.

US NUCLEAR ship the USS Theodore Roosevelt will be making its way to SA next month and the South African Navy has approached the National Nuclear Reactor (NNR) for a nuclear vessel licence, according to a newspaper notice at the

There are indications that major oil producers may compel Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut supply when the group meets on September 9, in Vienna, Austria.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the Petroleum, Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa (PetroSA) should begin exploiting his country's oil reserves, which are the largest in the world.

Freelance American filmmaker and journalist Andrew Berends and his translator, Nigerian Samuel George, remain in the custody of Nigerian state security services in Port Harcourt today. The Nigerian military arrested Berends and George on the afternoon of August 31 and

The Tanzanian government has agreed in principle to cooperate with Uganda in the development of Kikagate mini hydro power project on River Kagera.

PETROSA is ready to send a team as early as next month to assess the possibility of drilling for oil in Venezuela following the energy co-operation agreement signed yesterday with the Latin American country, CEO Sipho Mkhize said.

The battle for uranium oxide or yellow cake is heating up after the Ministry of Mines and Energy's decision to issue a mining licence to Bannerman Mining Resources Namibia.

Nigerian Electricity Regula-tory Commission (NERC), said "the poor" will still enjoy some subsidies on electricity after the three-year moratorium granted by the government.