Southern Europeans are facing four more years of ‘mutti’ (Mom) Angela Merkel — whether they like it or not. Majorities of 82% in Spain, 65% in Portugal and 58% in Italy repudiate the German leader’s handling of the Euro area’s debt crisis, blaming her for drastic cuts in social services, recession and record unemployment, according to a German Marshall Fund poll released last week.
Germany’s Wintershall sealed a 150 million dollar unconventional exploration contract with the Argentine province of Neuquén’s owned Gas y Petroleo de Neuquén to search for oil in the Vaca Muerta formation. The agreement could later be extended to 3.35bn.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has revised its 2013 global industry outlook downwards to 11.7 billion on revenues of 708 billion dollars, but anticipates that all regions during 2014 will see improved profitability, with divergence in performance and with strong emphasis in North America with 6.3 billion net profits.
With more arrests and airline workers suspected, Venezuela's top police official said that the smuggling of 1.5 tons of cocaine in 31 suitcases on an Air France flight from Caracas to Paris has led to nine arrests on two continents.
One of the several hydrocarbons companies operating in Falkland Islands waters expects its next drilling phase to begin in the fourth quarter of 2014 with a minimum of two exploration wells following extensive 3D surveying of southern licences in the Diomedea fan complex adjacent to the Darwin discovery.