Johanesburg. EXXON Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc may consider bidding for BP Plc after the London-based oil company lost more than half of its market value in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, JP Morgan Cazenove said. Bloomberg reports that Exxon Mobil has the stronger balance sheet and proven ability to integrate a large transaction, according to Fred Lucas, a London-based analyst at JP Morgan.

Paris. French major Total's chief executive Christophe de Margerie expects the industry to face tougher safety rules following the BP oil spill that could lead to higher oil prices.

It remains necessary to continue drilling in deep-water oil fields to meet global demand for transport fuel despite the moratorium imposed in the US Gulf of Mexico following the BP spill, Christophe de Margerie told the Wall Street Journal.

Paris. Schlumberger recently released its HiWAY flow-channel hydraulic-fracturing technique, a new stimulation process promising optimized production by creating stable open flow channels through which hydrocarbons flow. The result is essentially infinite fracture conductivity, an effect that other fracture techniques cannot achieve.

Ankara. An explosion has blown up a section of a pipeline carrying oil from Iraq to southern Turkey and set it on fire. The blast occurred on Saturday near the town of Midyat in the southeastern province of Mardin, but the cause is still unknown, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported.

Kiev. Ukraine has proposed that Russia and the European Union build a new gas pipeline across its territory to increase Russian gas transit to Europe, President Viktor Yanukovych said on Friday.

"As far as the gas transportation system is concerned, we have our own concept, which we proposed to our partners in the EU and Russia. This concept envisions the establishment of a joint EU-Russian-Ukrainian company to build a gas pipeline across Ukrainian territory, which would ensure extra gas transit to Europe," Yanukovych said at a news conference.

Paris. The European Commission has given a nod of approval to Total Petrochemicals Feluy (TPF) to acquire the polystyrene production lines of Polimeri Europa at Feluy, a subsidiary of Italian oil and gas company Eni (E).

Ankara. A Russian-Turkish intergovernmental agreement on the construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant has been submitted to the Turkish parliament, national media said on Friday.

The agreement to build the plant near the Mediterranean port of Mersin was signed during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Turkey in May. The plant is expected to be put into operation in 2016-2019.

Roma. An Italian government plan to restrict drilling offshore, influenced by the catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, hit shares in Ireland's Petroceltic International and other explorers active in the region on Thursday. The curbs come as the U.S. administration works on a new offshore drilling moratorium following the worst-ever oil spill in the U.S., with the International Energy Agency suggesting idled drilling rigs should head to other countries if the ban were extended.