Business news with words energy+key+plans. 4 news.

A Senate panel grilled a key government energy expert Tuesday over why the Bush administration plans to continue adding to the nation's oil reserve as the price of crude spikes near $100 a barrel.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Energy shares rose in early action Tuesday ahead of a key meeting by the Federal Reserve. With an interest rate cut expected, Wall Street sees brighter prospects for energy firms that will help provide the fuel for economic growth. The Amex Oil Index rose 0.8% to 1,490. The Amex Natural Gas Index rose 0.7% to 573. Transocean advanced 1% to $138.67. PetroChina rose 0.6% to $201.24 on plans by the company to expand refinery operations in China. Valero rose 1.2% $66.77 after CEO Bill Klesse told the Wall Street Journal the company's planning to restructure its refinery portfolio. Oil futures advanced $1.29 to $89.15.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Key Energy Services Inc. said Friday it plans to offer up to $400 million of senior notes due 2017 through a private placement. The debt issue would depend on market conditions and some of Key Energy's domestic subsidiaries will fully guarantee the notes. Funds raised from the notes will be used to retire $393 million loans under its existing senior secured credit facility. When the offering is completed, it will end its existing commitment to its previously announced term loan facility.

Quake-prone South-East Asia may go nuclear WITH oil expensive and their electric-power stations straining to keep up with rapidly rising demand, South-East Asian countries are dusting off their long-abandoned plans to build nuclear-power stations. Last month Indonesia's energy minister, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, was in Seoul for the signing of a preliminary deal in which a South Korean firm will help build Indonesia's first nuclear-power plant, on the north coast of Java. Indonesia's government wants the plant ready by 2016. Earlier this year Vietnam and Thailand each said they would build their first nuclear-power plants, to be operational by 2020 and 2021 respectively. The Philippines and Malaysia are also reviewing the nuclear option. In January, at a summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), members signed a pact to reduce their dependency on oil and cut their greenhouse-gas emissions. Nuclear energy, along with biofuels and hydropower, is seen as key to this.