Editorial: The Olympic Flame: China Burns Bright

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Tim Haïdar
08/06/2012

"For whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee" - John Donne

As the largest harmonically-tuned bell in existence rang out the beginning of the 30th Olympic games in London, a toll of another kind would peel out across the global markets.

Like a Sunday roast cooked over the Olympic flame, the expectation of central bank stimulus to suppress rising Spanish and Italian borrowing costs was grossly overcooked. By Tuesday morning, rallying markets had slipped from the podium places to panting also-rans, breathlessly hugging the Tartan track.

As of this morning, China leads the Olympic gold medal count with six. With last week's purchase of Nexen and half of Talisman Energy, Chinese-owned overseas oil companies now produce as much in a year as the entire output of Norway. How long before the Middle Kingdom is leading the charge in the Black Gold count? Have your say here

Physical drought in America has been reflected in a disappointing tally of US medals so far. Water shortages have curtailed hydraulic fracturing operations in many of the shale boom hotspots, as between nine and 54 million gallons of water are needed in each well. To keep with the theme, that is 18 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water.

In Oil and Gas IQ this week, we take a look at how sharing information may be the oil and gas industry's only way to stave off cyber blitzkrieg and we chart the MENA region's biggest LNG projects: