Energy Roundup: Exxon Q4 Tumbles, Myhrvold's Safe Nukes, and More

(MoneyWatch)  Exxon hits record year-end profits, despite large 4Q losses -- Exxon Mobil's fourth-quarter profits dropped 33 percent from the same period of 2007, as falling crude prices cut into the world's largest company's bottom line by $3.2 billion. The oil giant's dismal fourth-quarter profits likely provides a more accurate picture of today's marketplace than its yearly profits, which rose 11 percent from last year to hit a record-breaking $45.2 billion. [Source: Barron's Stocks to Watch]

India's first biodiesel refinery to use jatropha plant seeds -- Mission Biofuel, a Mumbai, India-based company, is seeking government approval to build the country's first biodiesel refinery. The project, which is expected to be built in Orissa, one of the poorest states of India, comes on the heels of a national policy mandating a 20 percent blend in gasoline and diesel by 2017. [Source: Cleantech]

Rising crude oil inventories pushing tanker rates down -- Transporting crude oil from the Caribbean, the world's third-largest Aframax tanker market, is 62 percent cheaper than it was four weeks ago thanks to rising U.S. oil stockpiles and a weakening economy. U.S. inventories, which hit 338.9 million barrels this week, have raised speculation tankers will be taken off the seas and put into storage. [Source: Bloomberg]

Think tank spinoff firm to develop safer reactor -- Ex-Microsoft chief scientist and Intellectual Ventures think tank founder Nathan Myhrvold is tackling nuclear energy with spinoff company TeraPower. The firm aims to develop reactors that run on natural or depleted uranium, reducing waste and the risk of nuclear proliferation. [Source: Greentech Media]