The Houston-based oil major ConocoPhillips is planning to team up with Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Co. to bid for oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea off Turkmenistan, according to reports.  Mubadala and Conoco, the third-biggest oil producer in the US, have already been working together in partnership with KazakhstanÔÇÖs KazMunaiGaz on exploration in the Kazakh section of the Caspian Sea.

The US oil major ConocoPhillips is planning to team up with Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Co. to bid for oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea off Turkmenistan, according to reports.

ConocoPhillips, the third biggest US oil company, has agreed to sell its 9.03 percent stake in Canadian oil sands project Syncrude to ChinaÔÇÖs Sinopec for $4.65 billion.

Google has announced its first ever UK acquisition, buying the Oxford-based mobile visual search start-up Plink.

Two US power companies, Mirant and RRI Energy, have agreed to a merger that will create one of the largest independent power producers in the US.  The two companies will combine to form GenOn Energy, a power producer with 24,700 megawatts of electric generating capacity and a market value of about $3.1 billion.

The German chemicals group BASF is said to be preparing a bid for Cognis, the German speciality chemicals maker currently owned by private equity firms.

US retailers reported their best year-on-year monthly sales gains in a decade on Thursday, thanks to Easter holiday purchases and a rise in discretionary spending.  Retail Metrics, which tracks monthly retail figures, said its same store sales index rose 8.7 percent in MarchÔÇöthe largest monthly increase since it began tracking the data in 2000. The company said the strong performance was due to the early Easter and easy comparisons with last yearÔÇöwhen the index fell 4.8 percent.

The World Bank has approved a $3.75 billion loan to the South African utility firm Eskom, which will mostly go towards the development of its Medupi coal-fired power plant.

Two of the biggest airlines in the USÔÇöUnited Airlines and US AirwaysÔÇöare in talks over a possible merger, according to reports.  The companies are said to have been in discussions for two weeks, but as yet, no agreement has been reached. The talks were first reported in the New York Times. Chicago-based United is the third-largest airline in the US by traffic, and Tempe, Arizona-based US Airways is the sixth.

Renault, Nissan and Daimler have announced a three-way alliance to jointly develop new small cars, light commercial vans and engine technologies.