The Spanish oil company Repsol will invest Ôé¼400 million over the next five years to boost natural gas production in Bolivia, it has been announced.

Shareholders in Canadian energy group EnCana have voted to split the energy company into two separate businessesÔÇöone focused on natural gas, the other on the Alberta oilsands.  Following approval of the move, Calgary-based EnCana will focus exclusively on gas, while its oil and refinery assets will be spun off into a separate company, Cenovus Energy, which is valued at C$21 billion (US$19.8 billion).  The natural gas assets will be run by Randy Eresman, EnCanaÔÇÖs chief executive. Cenovus will be headed up by Brian Ferguson, EnCana's current chief financial officer.

Transnet has secured a R2.2 billion loan from the French Development Agency (AFD) to help fund the expansion of Cape TownÔÇÖs container terminal.

General Motors may now close its Saab operations after a consortium led by SwedenÔÇÖs Koenigsegg Group walked away from the sale yesterday.  The future of the Swedish automaker will be decided at a GM board meeting on December 1, where the company will vote to either keep Saab, as it did with Opel earlier this month, or wind it down.  Closing Saab instead of selling would help Detroit-based GM to achieve its goal of trimming its US brands to four from eight in an effort to return to profit following its bankruptcy earlier this year.

US automotive firm General Motors may now close its Saab operations after a consortium led by SwedenÔÇÖs Koenigsegg Group walked away from the sale yesterday.

Husky Energy Inc. has announced the discovery of additional oil resources at its White Rose oil field, offshore eastern Canada.  A well drilled in the Hibernia Formation prospect encountered a 55-meter column of high-quality oil-bearing rock estimated to hold between 30 million to 85 million barrels of light crude in place, the company said in a statement.  Calgary-based Husky operates the White Rose field, which was discovered in the 1980s, and owns a 72.5 percent stake, with Suncor Energy Inc., also based in Calgary, owning the remaining 27.5 percent.

The Italian energy giant Eni has agreed to buy Heritage OilÔÇÖs Ugandan interests for up to ┬ú903 million, it has been revealed.

US chocolate maker Hershey is considering making an offer of $17 billion for UK confectionery firm Cadbury, according to reports.  It is believed that Hershey has lined up funding from Bank of America and JP Morgan in order to make a solo approach to rival the US food giant Kraft.  Reports last week indicated that Hershey was planning to team up with Italian chocolate maker Ferrero to make an offer for Cadbury, but according to the Wall Street Journal, the Pennsylvania-based firm will now pursue its bid alone.

The German rail operator Deutsche Bahn has signed a Ôé¼17 billion contract to build rail and underground lines in Qatar and Bahrain.

Canadian firm Nortel Networks is today holding an auction in New York for its optical networking and carrier ethernet business, Metro Ethernet Networks. Nortel, which was North AmericaÔÇÖs largest telecoms equipment maker, entered bankruptcy protection in January, before announcing in June that it no longer planned to continue operations and would sell off all of its business units. The Toronto, Ontario-based company has been selling off various operations since then, and has raised more than $2 billion to date. Assets have already been sold to Japanese electronics manuf