Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
staff reporter AMERICA’S trade deficit widened unexpectedly in April to a record US$48.3 billion (£26.7bn), as strong consumer demand and the highest oil prices in 21 years pushed imports to unprecedented levels. The monthly trade gap was well above Wall Street forecasts of $45bn (£24.8bn).
PARIS – Nuclear power, its image darkened by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, appears to be making a comeback of sorts in Europe as the Continent struggles to meet energy needs, faces higher bills for imported oil and honours its pledge to cut carbon pollution.
Throughout southern Africa, cable theft is ubiquitous, a sort of third-world analog to first-world thefts of car radios.
Many geologists believe we are in for a period of significantly higher oil prices, while nearly all economists and the analyst community predict oil prices will fall. Who do you believe?
Last month, the Angolan government did something startling: it announced that an oil deal signed with ChevronTexaco would bring the country $300 million.
BRITAIN is moving closer to a blackouts crisis in the energy industry, as the Government was today accused of wasting another year by burying its head in the sand.
UNITED NATIONS – The world is turning to dust, with lands the size of Rhode Island becoming desert wasteland every year and the problem threatening to send millions of people fleeing to greener countries, the United Nations says.
With new gas so hard to find and so costly, companies that want to show growth are prospecting on Wall Street.
An industrial report of the State Information Center with the National Bureau of Statistics forecasts China will face a more severe power shortage this year than it did in 2003.
US regulators had formalised an investigation of whether a joint venture including Halliburton, the world’s biggest oilfield contractor, violated anti-bribery legislation to win orders for work on a Nigerian gas plant, the company said at the weekend.
New demand for LNG in the Asia-Pacific region.
Islamist terrorists targeting Westerners in Saudi Arabia continues to raise security concerns despite assurances from authorities that the situation has not reached “crisis levels,” as the kingdom’s Islamic Affairs minister claims.
