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“I buy oil every day; iPads, you buy every couple of years.” Almir Barbassa, CFO, Petrobras Last Friday, supermajor ExxonMobil once again became the world’s most valuable company as tech giant Apple took a two per cent dive in the stock market. At $417.4 billion and $414.4 billion, Exxon and Apple respectively are both larger than the economies of South Africa, Denmark, Nigeria...Full Article »

“ All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.” Aristotle Thus spoke the great polymath, as he sat imparting his musings as Royal Tutor for the King of Macedon. An unpaid job apparently, but not without the obvious perks that come with tutorship to Alexander the Great. From Northern Greece to Northern Europe, reports coming out of Britain today are claiming that investment in the...Full Article »

“You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.” Ray Bradbury The US population will feel lucky that this wasn’t the case as they averted the descent from the “Fiscal Cliff” that threatened to pitch the country into further economic woe this past week. But as the nation steps back from the precipice, it should be looking up...Full Article »

“In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing” – Apollonius of Tyana, 1st Century AD   When the wandering philosopher Apollonius of Tyana made his way from Anatolia to India, the human population of Earth world would have been little more...Full Article »

"No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat.” - Deng Xiaoping Under the cover of post-American election furore and as seamlessly as day slips into night, the world’s biggest country by population and second largest economy appointed the man that would lead it for the next decade. 59-year old Xi Jinping steps into the fray at one...Full Article »

Process safety management (PSM) is a key concern for companies operating in the oil and gas industry, with new strategies and ways of dealing with challenges offering potential rewards in many areas. As well as posing an immediate human and environmental risk, safety incidents can have wider repercussions relating to finance, brand reputation, regulations and the sector as a whole. These are 10...Full Article »

In the past week, much has been made of the $4.5 billion fine levelled against British Petroleum for their part in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The largest criminal fine in US history - more than double the amount paid out by drug company Pfizer in the wake of their “off-label marketing” debacle – BP has been penalised for the events leading to 4.9 million barrels of spilled...Full Article »

“If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” John Davison Rockefeller   As Barack H. Obama, prepares for four more years in office, the commanding heights of the US oil industry are watching and waiting. Just days after Obama’s romping electoral success, The Interior Department has issued a plan to...Full Article »

New refinery capacity emerges in post-Arab Spring Egypt As the social and political fallout of the Arab Spring continues to gradually subside in countries across north Africa and the Middle East, new economic opportunities are emerging. In Egypt, the need to address the nation's on-going acute fuel shortage - and the commercial opportunities inherent in doing so - have seen several new...Full Article »

“By 2020, North America will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables.” – W. Mitt Romney "Unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this country's energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers.” – Barack H. Obama...Full Article »

"Where one door is shut another is opened." – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote   In the latest installment of the sanctions on Iran, the European Union yesterday imposed further prohibitions on the Middle Eastern nation in the hope of dragging it back to the negotiating table over its nuclear aspirations. In addition to July’s ban on crude oil and gasoline...Full Article »