Brent and US WTI crude oil prices fell to their lowest levels in almost six years on Tuesday as a big OPEC producer stood by the group's decision not to cut output to tackle a glut in the market.
With all the conspiracy theories surrounding OPEC's November decision not cut production, is it really not just a case of simple economics? The U.S. shale boom has seen huge hype but the numbers speak for themselves and such overflowing optimism may have been unwarranted. When discussing harsh truths in energy, no sector is in greater need of a reality check than renewable energy.
Two new studies by Quest Offshore Inc. for the (US) National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) show vast potential energy and economic benefits to the U.S. if the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific outer continental shelf (OCS) were opened to offshore oil and natural gas development.
Fence posts made from North Wales timber are keeping sheep safe thousands of miles away in the Falkland Islands. Every year a consignment of 4,000 fence posts weighing 20 tons is trucked from Ruthin to Portsmouth on the first stage of an 8,000-mile journey to the South Atlantic, reports the Daily Post from North Wales.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez will be travelling to Beijing next month, reciprocating a visit from her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last July, it was officially announced by chief of staff Jorge Capitanich. The meeting was anticipated last Friday in a meeting of the two countries foreign ministers on the sidelines of the CELAC/China ministerial forum held last week in Beijing.
Argentina said on Monday it was suspending HSBC Bank Argentina's right to transfer money abroad for 30 days due to irregularities, two months after charging it with helping clients evade taxes by siphoning their funds off to Switzerland.
The US economy added 252,000 jobs in December, while the unemployment rate fell to 5.6% from 5.8%, according to Labor Department figures. In addition, figures for the number of jobs created in October and November were both revised upwards. The jobless rate is now at its lowest since June 2008.
At least a dozen protesters arrested in Venezuela remained in jail and masked assailants burned a bus overnight amid scattered unrest over swelling lines for basic goods, activists said.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has instructed a budget cut which affects 39 ministries, reducing their funds by a third, in order to save a figure estimated at 703 million dollars per month.
Caribbean Community countries (Caricom) want to use the three billion US dollar concessionary facility announced by China last year for debt restructuring and refinancing among other initiatives, CARICOM Chairman Perry Christie has said.