Energy companies and governments prepared on Thursday for a possible major hit on the heart of U.S. offshore oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico from Tropical Storm Gustav.

Energy companies on Wednesday braced for the worst storm to threaten the U.S. Gulf of Mexico oilpatch since 2005's devastating hurricanes as Tropical Storm Gustav churned toward the heart of U.S. offshore production.

A key Brazilian oil workers' union threatened Thursday to shut down Petrobras oil fields in the Campos basin that produces over 80 percent of Brazil's oil for five days starting from Monday.

The market may be headed south, but that doesn't mean your portfolio has to follow suit.  To give investors an edge, CNBC asked the market experts for their best stock picks now.

The record run-up in oil prices over recent years is igniting fierce debate over the "peak oil" theory — that once the maximum rate of global production is reached, a steep decline ensues.   Here we present two squarely opposed viewpoints on the issues from rivals who have been sparring for years. 

With the proliferation of energy-oriented mutual funds over the last ten years, getting a piece of this supercharged, if highly volatile, sector has never been easier. But energy funds have been notoriously hot and cold over the years, so investors should allocate no more than 5 percent of their total portfolio to this sector.

Petrobras, the Brazilian oil producer that’s rapidly emerging as one of the world’s top companies, is “finding very good results” at its newly discovered off-shore deposits, Chief Executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo told CNBC in an exclusive interview.

Brazil's strong growth-- fueled by red-hot commodities exports and a strong domestic demand-- offers investors a growing range of options.

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