

The Green Behind Green Crude
Investors are a tough crowd to cultivate. Yet in the pond that is the biotechnology market, one product seems to be rising to the top like the green sludge it is: algae. Its potential use as biofuel is drawing venture money from places you might not expect. The reason: It could be both environmentally responsible and profitable.


















The oil price rally above $80 a barrel is pinching refining margins and will prompt another round of run cuts in Europe and the United States, where demand for products is lacklustre coming out of the peak season.
The explosion on April 20 aboard the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig working on a well for the oil company BP one mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, led to the largest accidental oil spill in history. It was not until July 15 – 86 days after the explosion – that it appeared that the oil had stopped gushing into the gulf, but not until 5 million barrels (275 million gallons) of oil had devastated the fragile ecosystem of the Gulf.
Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) has made a discovery of oil and natural gas with an exploration well drilled onshore Brazil in the Espirito Santo Basin.



