India has no problem with Iran imports

Friday, 09 Dec 2011

Gulf News reported that India sees no impediments to importing Iranian oil despite a new wave of sanctions imposed by the West.

Mr S Jaipal Reddy oil minister of India said that "As long as there are no sanctions on oil as such, other problems can be managed. There are some practical problems in making payments but we have managed to surmount those problems."

Iran is India's second biggest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia and exports total about USD 12 billion per year meeting about 12% of India's import needs.

India and Iran have been struggling to find a permanent mechanism to settle their bilateral trade especially since December when India's central bank scrapped a clearing house mechanism a move welcomed by the US which is trying to isolate Iran over its nuclear program.

The US, Britain and Canada announced new measures against Iran's energy and financial sectors last month and France proposed unprecedented new sanctions including freezing the assets of its central bank and suspending purchases of its oil. Meanwhile, the European Union last week added 180 people and entities to its Iran sanctions list and laid out plans for a possible embargo of Iranian oil.

Mr Reddy declined to comment on whether India would buy more Iranian oil if the EU bans imports or whether India was in talks with Saudi Arabia about fallback supplies if Iran crude stops coming, saying both were hypothetical situations.

(Sourced from Gulf News)

Cove Energy says Mozambique block may have 40 TFC of gas

Tue Nov 1, 2011

CAPE TOWN Nov 1 (Reuters) - Britain's Cove Energy PLC believes its offshore Mozambique Rovuma block it is exploring has an upside potential of 40 trillion cubic feet of gas, almost triple the 11 tcf it has proven, the company's chairman said on Tuesday.

"We believe to date that we have already proven up more than 11 tcf, however Cove estimates the overall potential of the (Rovuma offshore Mozambique) block only to be more 40 tcf . and the total potential for East Africa is easily 100 tcf," Michael Blaha, executive chairman of Cove Energy, told an African oil and gas conference on Tuesday.

Oil and gas companies, including U.S. firm Anadarko , are flocking to the southern African nation following huge gas finds.

Blaha said the first gas from Mozambique was eyed for 2018, with the first LNG gas trains likely to supply the growing Asian market.

"The Mozambique LNG project alone could be a game-changer for the LNG industry," he said.

(sourced Reuters)

Utility companies write down £600m of coal assets

Major energy companies have written down the value of coal and oil power station assets by £600m, with RWE npower poised to cut around 440 jobs linked to closing plants.

By Rowena Mason, Energy Correspondent

Mon,22Aug,2011

The falling profitability of coal stations in the medium-term is linked to costly restrictions from Europe on carbon dioxide emissions and lower wholesale electricity prices last year.

EDF Energy has booked a £340m write-down on its Cottam and West Burton coal-fired power stations, which last changed hands for £398m and £366m respectively.

The company said they both remain "an integral part of the generating portfolio" but "expectation of future revenues" is lower.

Meanwhile, RWE npower has recorded an "exceptional impairment loss against the value of two coal and two oil fired power stations" amounting to £249m.

It said: "This has been caused by a sharp decline in the margins forecast to be earned on coal and oil generation over the next three to four years reflecting fundamental changes in the UK generation market over this period."

E.ON has also recognised a £40m impairment related to its decision not to develop its Kingsnorth coal power station any further. It decided to put off turning the plant into a "clean" coal generator because of insufficient electricity demand.

Coal is facing its demise in Britain as new stations have to meet onerous environmental standards and margins remain low.

Furthermore, nine of the UK's coal stations must close before 2015 because of European regulations on pollution.

All coal power stations were given the choice between spending millions on becoming less pollutive or running 20,000 more hours in their current form before closing.

This has caused RWE npower to take a £22m hit through expected severance and termination costs for 441 lost jobs related to the closure of coal plants over the next four years.

However, for some of this year, rising gas prices means coal has been the preferred means of generation. In July, Liberum Capital said: "We ascribe little value to coal power stations due to their short life but this 'oxygen blast' of profitability should help short-term earnings."

(By Telegraph)

Please — let’s not call these the ‘BlackBerry riots’

Aug9, 2011

Here we go again: Young people, rioting in the streets, railing against leadership, using their mobile phones to outsmart law enforcement caught off guard by the nimbleness of cool kids in what would be a B-movie script if it wasn’t unfolding in real time.

But this time it isn’t happening in some far off, ambiguously backward Middle Eastern place. No, this is happening in the homeland of Sir Thomas Moore, Winston Churchill and Kate Middleton.

And, for a pleasant change, the technology being blamed/credited for fueling the fire is neither Facebook nor Twitter, but BlackBerry Message Service — one of the oldest means of mobile-to-mobile text communication, better known among aficionados simply as BBM.

It is, of course, a distinction without a difference. Mobile phones don’t start riots. Sometimes, people with mobile phones do. Sadly, we still seem years away from the time when how people communicate is utterly irrelevant to what they are saying and doing. As the Wall Street Journal‘s Ben Rooney puts it:

… (T)he simple fact is that social media can no more take the credit for the “Arab Spring” than the blame for the “London Summer”. They may have played a role but simply because they are the communication tool of the day. Communication technology is morally neutral.

Still, this comes as a curious variation on the theme. The fact that BlackBerrys are the mobile phone of choice among Britain’s youth (well, at least those prone to this onset of violent street demonstrations) might strike the casual observer as a peculiar factoid. U.K. communications regulator Ofcom says some 37% of British teens have a BlackBerry handset.

And there is another thing: BBM messages are largely untraceable. As my wired.co.uk colleague Olivia Solon notes, this privacy aspect makes the handset popular in places where there is, shall we say, less reverence to due process than the UK:

BlackBerry automatically encrypts messages sent to another person’s BlackBerry when using their PIN — this means that the messages cannot be intercepted by a government or mobile network. As such the service has become very popular in the Middle East where it is used to criticize authorities, which explains why Saudi Arabia and the UAE tried to block BBM and other functions last year.

Either way, this is lousy news for BlackBerry, which has been beset by bad news for a while now that Apple and Google has made it a marginalized player, even in the enterprise where it once reigned supreme. For Research in Motion, this is already a daunting image challenge: Fairly or not, their brand is being singled out for enabling riots.

In a Tweet in the midst of all this they have tried to walk a careful line, expressing sympathy for “those impacted by the riots in London” but also saying they were “engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can.”

That last bit may haunt them if still-loyal customers who value the messaging flexibility and peace of mind they enjoy with BlackBerrys is compromised in some kind of backlash. Value propositions turn on a dime, even if wireless contracts take a bit longer.

But we need to start ignoring the smokescreen that is the entire subject of how tech is responsible for bad or undesired behavior. That is the stuff of Fahrenheit 451-esque oppressive regimes. Let’s hope there are no calls for any Parliamentary inquiries into the role of tech, or witch-hunt subpoenas for BlackBerry messages.

ANALYSIS - Riots shake faith in UK austerity, stability

By Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent

Wed Aug 10,2011

LONDON (Reuters) - In the eyes of the financial markets, Britain was supposed to be a model of successful, sustainable austerity and a safe haven in which the world's rich could buy houses and stash their savings.

The riots that turned London and some other English cities upside down this week have undermined that model, raising questions about the sustainability of spending cuts and a widening gap between rich and poor.

From many of the dealing rooms and offices in the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, traders, wealth managers and analysts could see billowing smoke in several directions this week as rioters torched buildings and looted shops.

Order was restored in the capital at least on Tuesday night with a massive show of force by police, but they too face the drastic spending cuts that will affect everything from the military to social benefits and inner-city services.

Britain's coalition government says it remains committed both to cutting a record budget deficit and staying in power until elections due by 2015.

Investors have always had mixed feelings about austerity. They want the British government to tackle the huge deficit to slow its accumulation of debt. But they also fear that cuts will push the economy back into recession, hitting corporate earnings and tax income while raising social spending costs and actually pushing the country deeper into debt.

Nevertheless, they had generally compared British determination to cut the deficit favourably with the indecision or infighting paralysing much policy-making in the euro zone and United States. Now, they are not so sure.

"If you'd asked me at the weekend, I would have said that with the problems of the euro zone and U.S., (Britain's) sterling (currency) might be poised to become an appealing safe haven," said Simon Derrick, head of foreign exchange at the London branch of Bank of New York Mellon.

As he spoke, from his dealing room Derrick could still see smoke on the horizon from a distant burning warehouse. "This has certainly shaken that... it's probably still too soon to say what it means for policy, but it certainly makes austerity look more difficult."

The short-term market impact looks to have been limited. Derrick said U.S. media coverage of the London riots prompted a modest sell-off in the pound late on Tuesday, but markets have largely shrugged off the violence.

Indeed, the cost of insuring Britain's debt in the credit default swaps market edged below that of Germany this week for the first time -- with investors clearly believing worries that Germany might have to bail out Italy and Spain outstripped concerns about Britain.

After unexpected uprisings shook the Middle East and North Africa earlier this year, wealth managers say billions were transferred to London in particular as nervous regional leaders and business elites raced to move their wealth to safety.

Attracted by a reputation for stability and the opportunity for a luxury lifestyle -- as well as a strong legal system and systems allowing them to conceal their wealth through trusts and other structures -- they bought property and other assets.

But this week's events have undermined London's safe haven appeal and some analysts expect louder calls for both tighter controls on unfettered wealth and a rethinking of planned cuts.

Some countries such as Latvia and Ireland have pushed through massive cuts with relatively little unrest but not everyone can pull off the same trick. The British riots could point to similar risks in other European and U.S. cities as cuts start to bite.

ONLY THE BEGINNING?

"I don't think the implications of this have been fully thought through or accepted yet," said Pepe Egger, western Europe analyst for London-based consultancy Exclusive Analysis.

"What we have here is the result of decades of growing divisions and marginalisation, but austerity will almost certainly make it worse. Yes, the police can restore control with massive force but that is not sustainable either in the long term. You have to accept that this may happen again."

Speaking to Reuters late on Tuesday, looters and other local people in east London pointed to the wealth gap as the underlying cause, also blaming what they saw as police prejudice and a host of recent scandals.

Spending cuts were now hitting the poorest hardest, they said, and after tales of politicians claiming excessive expenses, alleged police corruption and bankers getting rich it was their turn to take what they wanted

"They set the example," said one youth after riots in the London district of Hackney. "It's time to loot."

Unsurprisingly, the criminality produced a swift popular backlash. Vigilante groups patrolled some streets, while media and social networks were deluged with demands for tough action.

This itself could pose one of the greatest initial challenges to spending cuts. Prime Minister David Cameron made it clear all necessary resources would be available to the police, but the government also says it will still stick to its plans to cut police spending by roughly a fifth.

POLICE CUTS CHALLENGED

That contrasts with the 1980s approach of Margaret Thatcher, who slashed public spending and took on trade unions in the face of unrest but ploughed money into the police and military.

Support for police cuts is dwindling. London Mayor Boris Johnson, a leading member of the ruling Conservative party, called on Wednesday for them to be watered down.

Analyst Louise Taggart at security consultancy AKE said that in time urban unrest worries could make it harder to cut other programmes as well, including sorely needed education and community services. It went well beyond Britain, she said.

"Across Europe, we've already seen some incidence of civil unrest," she said, saying it would almost inevitably impact policy. "There's definitely a likelihood that similar scenes might erupt when austerity cuts really start to be felt."

If slashing spending is less of an option, Western states may have little option but to pursue ever more rounds of quantitative easing, effectively printing money whilst keeping benefits, wages and spending programmes largely static.

That could bring its own problems -- not just inflation hitting the savings of the rich and the buying power of the poor but also increased tensions between Western states and emerging economies such as China that hold their debt.

"The most likely path from here is for no changes being made and moving into inflating the debt away -- unfortunately" said Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank.

However, he warned that this alone would not restore social or financial stability without more fundamental systemic change. "For a society to grow and move forward all social classes need to benefit from growth," he said.

(sourced Reuters)

SA issues travel warning for UK

Foreign affairs department urges South Africans to delay or postpone their trips to London

SAPA

Wed,Aug10, 2011

South Africans planning to travel to London should postpone their trips, the international relations and cooperation department said on Wednesday amid violent riots which have gripped the British capital.

"Given the prevailing conditions in that country, we advise South Africans who can delay or postpone their trips to consider doing so," spokesman Clayson Monyela said in a statement.

South African High Commission in Britain is also ready to assist South Africans who require assistance in that country.

"Government continues to monitor the situation and developments in the UK," Monyela said.

The riots, described as the worst in decades, entered its fifth day on Wednesday.

According to Scotland Yard, 768 people were arrested and 111 police officers have been injured during clashes, AFP reported.

Those needing assistance can contact the department's consular section for information and updates on 012 351 1000.

Britain, other eurozone countries face ratings cut: Jim Rogers

By Kevin Lim and Harry Suhartono, Reuters

8 Aug, 2011

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Britain and several euro zone countries are likely to have their credit ratings cut in coming months as debt problems worsen, and Western policymakers are bound to embark on more quantitive easing to get their economies moving, American investor Jim Rogers said on Monday.

He also said Standard & Poor's acted too slowly in stripping the United States of its AAA rating on Friday, and that he remained bullish on commodities as investors turn to real assets amid fears of further quantitative easing by the U.S. and European central banks.

"The idea that the U.S. is downgraded and the UK is not is lunacy. There are many countries, Belgium, Spain, lots of countries in Europe, that should be downgraded just as the U.S. has been downgraded," Rogers said in an interview with Reuters Insider.

Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros in the 1970s, is a well-known investor and public speaker known for his bullish views on commodities and China. He now lives in Singapore.

Rogers said he has long positions on agriculture, gold and other commodities and is short on emerging market equities, government bonds and large U.S. financial institutions.

Despite the recent falls in commodity prices and U.S. Treasury yields, he said his positions remained healthy as the losses were offset by gains on his short positions.

Rogers predicted Western governments will embark on a new round of quantitative easing to help spur their moribund economies, as politicians and other policymakers were not prepared to go through the pains of bankruptcy.

"They'll try to disguise it. They'll call it cupcakes or who knows what. It'll cause a big rally in raw materials and commodities because more and more people will realise they are printing money, they are debasing the currency."

CHINA, EUROPE

In contrast, Rogers said China was doing the right thing in trying to cool its economy and combat inflation.

"Is it going to be fun? No, some real estate investors are going to go broke in Shanghai and other parts of China. But that's not the end of the world, that's not the end of the Chinese economy. Things may slow down but China's not going to fall off the face of the world."

Rogers called on European politicians and bureaucrats to face reality and let weak eurozone governments default, and "the people who made the bad loans lose money."

"The idea of printing more money and buying up worthless bonds instead of forcing people to go bankrupt is ludicrous."

"In America, we had states and cities go bankrupt, many times. It didn't end the United States, it didn't end the U.S. dollar. It caused some pain, some terrible pain. But that's how you solve problems."

"You start over from a stronger base, after you acknowledge your mistakes... That's what capitalism is all about."

Fears of more violence after worst London riots for years

7 Aug, 2011 | By Michael Holden and Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) - London braced on Sunday for more violence after some of the worst riots seen in the British capital for years which politicians and police blamed on criminal thugs but residents attributed to local tensions and anger over hardship.

Rioters throwing petrol bombs rampaged overnight through an economically deprived district, setting police patrol cars, buildings and a double-decker bus on fire.

"There is Twitter conversations that people are being asked to meet again down in Tottenham so we are all concerned but clearly we will be much better prepared this evening," Richard Barnes, London's Deputy Mayor, told BBC TV.

Police Commander Adrian Hanstock told Reuters there was "a lot of ill-informed and inaccurate speculation on social media sites" that could inflame the situation.

"Should we receive any indication that there will be any further violence or offending, there is a robust policing plan in place and we will respond appropriately with the resources available to us," he said.

BOMBARDED WITH MISSILES, BOTTLES

Police said 26 officers were injured as rioters bombarded them with missiles and bottles, looted buildings including banks, shops and council offices, and torched three patrol cars near Tottenham police station in north London.

The riots erupted after a street protest over the fatal shooting of a man by armed officers this week turned violent.

Residents said they were forced to flee their homes to escape the trouble as mounted police and riot officers on foot charged the crowd to push rioters back.

As day broke, the Metropolitan Police, which will handle next year's London Olympic Games in what is expected to be Britain's biggest peacetime operation, faced questions about how the trouble had been allowed to escalate.

The disturbance was only finally brought under control on Sunday after hours of sporadic clashes. Buildings were still smouldering, bricks littered the roads and burglar alarms continued to ring out.

At a nearby retail park, electrical stores and mobile phone shops had been ransacked, with boxes for large plasma televisions discarded outside, along with CDs and glass from smashed windows.

"They have taken almost everything," said Saad Kamal, 27, branch manager of retailer JD Sports. "Whatever is left is damaged."

APPEAL FOR CALM

Local member of parliament David Lammy said they did not know if everyone had escaped flats above shops that were gutted by fire. "A community that was already hurting has now had the heart ripped out of it," he told reporters.

Police and community leaders said the community had been horrified by what happened and appealed for calm amid fears that further rioting could break out or spread to other areas.

The trouble broke out on Saturday night following a peaceful demonstration over the shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, who was killed after an exchange of gunfire with police on Thursday. Duggan's death is now being investigated by the independent police watchdog.

The riots also come amid deepening gloom in Britain, with the economy struggling to grow amid deep public spending cuts and tax rises brought into help eliminate a budget deficit which peaked at more than 10 percent of GDP.

"Tottenham is a deprived area. Unemployment is very, very high ... they are frustrated," said Uzodinma Wigwe, 49, who was made redundant from his job as a cleaner recently.

"We know we have been victimised by this government, we know we are being neglected by the government," said another middle-aged man who declined to give his name. "How can you make one million youths unemployed and expect us to sit down?"

Tottenham has a large number of ethnic minorities and includes areas with the highest unemployment rates in London. It also has a history of racial tension with local young people, especially blacks, resenting police behaviour including the use of stop and search powers.

NOTORIOUS RACE RIOT IN 1985

The disorder was close to where one of Britain's most notorious race riots occurred in 1985, when police officer Keith Blakelock was hacked to death on the deprived Broadwater Farm housing estate during widespread disturbances.

Locals said there had been growing anger recently about police behaviour.

"I've lived in Broadwater Farm for 20 odd years and from day one, police always pre-judge Turks and black people," said a 23-year-old community worker of Turkish origin who would not give his name.

Fingers were also pointed at the police for failing to anticipate the trouble, although Commander Hanstock said there had been no hint of what was coming. He said they expected to add to the 42 people already arrested.

The London force has been heavily criticised for its handling of recent large protests against austerity measures, while its chief and the top counter-terrorism officer have quit over the handling of the News Corp phone-hacking scandal.

"I'm concerned that what was peaceful protest ... turned into this and it seemed to go on for many hours before we saw the kind of policing that I think is appropriate," Lammy said.

Politicians said criminals and thugs, rather than those with genuine grievances, had taken advantage of the situation.

"The rioting in Tottenham last night was utterly unacceptable," a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said. "There is no justification for the aggression the police and the public faced, or for the damage to property."

The capital also saw riots at the end of last year when protests against government plans to raise tuition fees for university students in the centre of London turned violent with police and government buildings attacked.

During the most serious disturbances last December, rioters targeted the limousine belonging to heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, kicking its doors, cracking a window and reportedly jabbing Camilla with a stick.

Protesters rally in central London,Britain against the government's spending cuts and against the military intervention in Libya

Mar27, 2011


Protesters rally at Hyde Park in central London, Britain, March 26, 2011. Tens of thousands of people rallied in central London Saturday in protest against the government's spending cuts and against the military intervention in Libya.





A fire burns in Oxford Circus, during a protest organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), called "The March for the Alternative," in central London March 26, 2011. Tens of thousands of Britons protested against the coalition government's austerity measures on Saturday in the biggest demonstration in the capital since the Iraq War in 2003

(Xinhua/Bimal Gautam)

Euro coal June DES ARA trades at USD 128 per tonne

Monday, 28 Mar 2011

Traders and utilities said that prompt European physical coal prices held steady again on Friday, held up more by strong swaps values than physical demand.

Utility sources said that demand for coal in Europe has shrivelled now that German utilities have bought what they need for the near-term and stockpiles in France, Britain and Scandinavia are fairly high.

A European utility source said that "We're still getting offers of almost every type of coal but there's nowhere to put it even if the discount to API2 drops further and we were tempted to buy.”

Prices of close to USD 130.00 a tonne DES ARA do not reflect the abundance of coal supply in Europe but have been hoisted to that level by strong coal swaps prices.

Traders said that swaps have been reacting more to oil volatility and Middle East unrest plus an improvement in the dark spread the profit to be made from generating using coal as fuel, rather than fundamental factors.

One trader said that "Europe is horrible at the moment. Nobody's buying anything, not even the Scandinavians.”

Low water levels on the Rhine and Danube rivers mean barges carrying coal cannot sail fully loaded. This is also dissuading German buyers from taking more prompt coal at present.

In Asia the market seems to be rebalancing quickly after the initial panic about distressed cargoes as a result of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. (sourced Thomson Reuters)