Information sourced from an FT article by Energy Editor Christopher Adams published 15 February 2015 under the headline:
“BP’s battles leave it vulnerable to major move”
Extract
If ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson really wanted to, he could snap up BP in a single bite. Of all the UK major’s rivals, Exxon, the world’s biggest energy company, has the firepower to swallow BP whole. Could it happen? Some industry insiders think yes.
The article sets out the reasons already highlighted by many other industry experts and observers.
The financial fall out from Deepwater Horizon disaster
BP’s “languishing” share price
The collapse in the price of oil
It points out that as a result of the combined factors, BP’s continuing membership of the “the Big Five” is doubtul and sets out the benefits of a takeover by ExxonMobil, including the potential for Exxon to manipulate U.S. courts to bring down costs arising from Deepwater Horizon and from taking over BP’s stake in the Rosneft/Putin Arctic drilling project.
The article does touch on the prospect of a Royal Dutch Shell bid for BP, but warns that it could run up against a competition investigation.
Aidan Heavey’s Tullow Oil must stare down its lenders as it continues to pour billions into oil assets while prices plummet. Can its Lamborghini owning boss turn the oil company’s fortune around?
The oil company’s 2014 results, released last Wednesday, made for grim reading. The value of crude oil has fallen by 50pc since June, plummeting from $107 a barrel to under $50. Against this backdrop Aidan Heavey’s Carlow-born exploration company made a loss – a staggering $2bn one – for the first time in 15 years. Shares in the company are down around 55pc in one year – and two-thirds compared to 2011.
From an article published 16 February 2015 by The Tide under the headline:
Shell Denies Abandoning New Bonga Project
Extracts
The Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) has denied recent reports that it has stopped the development of the strategic Bonga South West/Aparo (BSWA) projectdue to the slump in international oil price.
In a statement signed by Shell’s Corporate Media Relations Manager, Precious Okolobo, and made available to The Tide, SNEPCo restated its commitment to the implementation of the BSWA project, designed to boost oil and gas production to increase national revenue generation capacity.
The statement quoted Managing Director, SNEPCo, Tony Attah, as saying: “We can confirm that we are currently progressing the tender for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts to support the project.”
He added that, “Although, the process has encountered some delays, we are optimistic for a final investment decision in the 2015/16 timeframeunder the right conditions.”
The Bonga project itself, which began producing oil and gas in 2005, is Nigeria’s first deep-water development in water depths over 1,000 metres.
In 2014, SNEPCo also started oil production at the Bonga North West deep-water development, with the oil transported by a new undersea pipeline to the existing Bonga FPSO and export facility.
In November, 2014, SNEPCo announced plans to drill eight more wells in the Bonga field in the third phase of the Bonga main development.
Since it began production about 10 years ago, Bonga has produced over 500 million barrels of oil, and has also managed a robust gas unitization and monetization programme aimed at upping the nation’s foreign exchange earnings and overall revenue base to drive sustainable development.
From an article by AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein published 14 Feb 2015 by Associated Press under the headline:
“STUDY: OKLAHOMA’S DAILY SMALL QUAKES RAISE RISK OF BIG ONES”
SAN JOSE, California (AP) — Small earthquakes shaking Oklahoma and southern Kansas daily and linked to energy drilling are dramatically increasing the chance of bigger and dangerous quakes, federal research indicates.
This once stable region is now just as likely to see serious damaging and potentially harmful earthquakes as the highest risk places east of the Rockies such as New Madrid, Missouri, and Charleston, South Carolina, which had major quakes in the past two centuries.
They are mostly in areas with energy drilling, often hydraulic fracturing, a process known as fracking. Many studies have linked the increase in small quakes to the process of injecting wastewater deep underground because it changes pressure and triggers dormant faults.
Until now, those quakes were mostly thought of as nuisances and not really threats. But Ellsworth’s continuing study, which is not yet published, showed the mere increase In the number of tiny temblors raises the risk of earthquakes that scientists consider major hazards.
BISHOPS' LOST CREDIBILITY related news article from: abs-cbn news
Vidal joins calls for PNoy's resignation
By Joworski Alipon, ABS-CBN News Central Visayas
Posted at 02/14/2015 2:48 PM | Updated as of 02/14/2015 5:12 PM
Palace says PNoy committed to finish term
CEBU (UPDATED) - Retired Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal has joined calls for President Benigno Aquino III's resignation following the Mamasapano clash between government forces and Muslim rebels. Vidal, as chairman of the National Transformation Council (NTC), urged Aquino to step down from office and also called for reforms in the system of government. "We, bishops of the Catholic and other Christian Churches, have often been asked if there is moral basis to this growing demand. Even long before the unfortunate events, the National Transformation Council has strongly articulated that the President step down. Recent developments have made the call even more urgent and imperative," he said in a press conference Friday. Vidal's view was supported by Bishop Ramon Villena, Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, Archbishop Romulo dela Cruz, Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla and Bishop Filomeno Bactol. Former Senator Kit Tatad and former National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales also gave their support on the matter. Malacañang said it respects "contrary views" but maintained the President is committed to finish his term. "While we respect contrary views, we affirm the President's firm commitment to fulfill his sworn duty until the completion of his term of office," Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma said in a text message. Meanwhile, the NTC clarified that they are not planning to be part of the alleged coup d'etat brewing against the President. The NTC said they only encourage the public to stand united for change. Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, for his part, said the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), has no plans of getting involved in any political activities. Palma said he only wants the President to answer questions regarding the Mamasapano operation that resulted in the deaths of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos. Meanwhile, a Mass was celebrated at Vidal's small chapel in his residence in Cebu City on Saturday morning for the fallen SAF troopers. -- With report from Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News
Archbishop challenges Pinoys to live Pope's message
ABS-CBNnews.com
Posted at 01/30/2015 12:15 AM
MANILA -- Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma has expressed his sadness over the death of 44 members of the Philippine National Police - Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) in a clash with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Barangay Tukanalipao in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Sunday. The incident happened just a week after Pope Francis' five-day apostolic visit to the Philippines. "Even if the inspiration has been given by the Pope, in the final analysis, we still live in an imperfect world," he said. Palma also challenged Filipinos who were touched by the Pope to keep his message alive. Meanwhile, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle has expressed his condolences to the family of the fallen soldiers. "The Archdiocese of Manila joins the nation in mourning her fallen soldiers. Masses for the dead will be offered tomorrow in all our parish churches, shrines, and chapels of religious communities for the eternal repose of our heroes," Tagle said in a statement. - with reports from Jing Castañeda and Niko Baua, ABS-CBN News
MANILA, Feb. 14, 2015—A group of religious leaders from the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations, has renewed its call for the resignation of President Benigno S. Aquino III, implying that the “Mamasapano massacre” and its aftermath have made it even “more urgent and imperative”.
The National Transformation Council (NTC) comprising religious leaders from Protestant churches and the Catholic Church, stresses its call for President Benigno Aquino III's resignation. (Photo: NTC)
“We, bishops of the Catholic and other Christian churches, have often been asked if there is moral basis to this growing demand. Even long before the unfortunate events, the National Transformation Council (NTC) has strongly articulated that the President step down. Recent developments have made the call even more urgent and imperative,” says NTC in a joint statement issued Feb. 13.
Fresh start
NTC demands the whole government to step down in order for the country to transform through a new and fresh start.
The group’s members further call the Jan. 25 incident the summit of Pnoy’s mishandling of many obligations, which allegedly reveals the “subterfuge of illegal, unconstitutional and immoral foundation” of his regime, adding that their plea for his and his cohorts’ resignation echoes the general feeling of the people.
Illegitimate claim
According to them, Aquino’s misrule clearly indicates his illegitimate claim to the position and that his continuing stay endangers the lives of Filipinos and adversely affects the moral landscape of the nation.
Citing “Gaudium et Spes” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World), NTC shares that “at all times and in all places, the Church should have the freedom to teach her doctrine and to pass moral judgment in those matters which regard the common good and fundamental rights and freedoms.”
It adds, “The Church and her pastors must never abandon their duty to denounce evil and to guide men, women and children in their active search for the truth and the good. Moral evil must be removed from the political and social system. This task, the Church and the political community cannot just leave them in the hands of politicians, no matter how virtuous they might be.”
Wanted: Honest leaders
Amid the challenges modern society faces, the group points out it is “now, more than ever, necessary” that political leaders be outstanding for honesty, integrity, and commitment to the common good.
NTC explains this is the way officials can preserve the rich human and natural resources with which God has blessed the country; marshal the moral resources needed to face the demands of the present; and pass on to coming generations a society of authentic justice, solidarity and peace.
Christian challenge
Moreover, the religious leaders underscore that theirs is the challenge to answer the “call of our Christian faith and life,” urging Filipinos to let go of their comfort zones, go to the peripheries, and find the poor, the powerless, the marginalized and the neglected.
“With courage, we confront the seat of power and privilege. No doubt, the call on Mr. Aquino to step down is profoundly a moral issue that can no longer be ignored,” they add.
The joint statement was made by the following Catholic leaders: Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Davao Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla, Zamboanga Archbishop Romulo de la Cruz, Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, Naval Bishop Filomeno Bactol, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, Fr. Carlito Clase on behalf of Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos.
Non-Catholic Christian communities were represented by Bishop Butch Belgica of the Christian Bishops of the Philippines and Pastor Arthur Corpus of the United Church of Manila.
Discernment
Meanwhile, CBCP as an institutional body has yet to make its own official, collective position on a call for presidential resignation.
In a letter issued Feb. 4, CBCP head Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan states that whether or not Aquino should resign and “yield the powers of his high office to a lawful successor is a judgment that he must make, after prayerful discernment, and in all humility and judiciousness.”
The CBCP chief, however, endorses the creation of a credible Truth Commission or a fact-finding body, believing any inquiry by a police body like a Board of Inquiry, “no matter how veridical its findings,” will compromise the objectivity of the investigation.
“Before we have all the facts, however, the CBCP cannot morally join in the calls for his resignation, leaving this decision to his humble and prayerful discernment of his capacity to lead and the support his has not only from officials of government but from members of Philippine society,” Villegas adds. (Raymond A. Sebastián/CBCP News)
The earth’s surface is only 30 percent land; 70 percent is ocean.
Jeffrey Linn, a Seattle urban planner, is using digital cartography to imagine worlds that are even more watery.
You don’t need a starship to visit them, although a time machine would be useful. That’s because Linn’s maps depict what some cities would like if sea levels went up by 80 meters, or 264 feet.
New York City. (Map: Courtesy Spatialities.com)
For sea levels to rise this much, all the major ice caps and sheets would need to melt, which would send the water they store on land flowing into the world’s ocean.
Linn pulled the number from a study made by the United States Geological Survey.
He points out that even in future climate scenarios where we do little or nothing to curb the worst impacts of global warming, that kind of flooding would take centuries if not millennia to come about.
“I’m not trying to be a doomsayer,” Linn said. “The fascinating thing for me is the landforms, the islands, bays, and seas that emerge when you do this modeling.”
But our failure to act fast on climate change is accelerating the process. So if these visions of Seattle; Montreal; Vancouver, British Columbia; and other cities reduced to archipelagoes—or submerged completely underwater—got people thinking harder about climate change, that wouldn’t be a bad thing.
London. (Map: Courtesy Spatialities.com)
Linn made his first drowned city map, “Islands of Seattle,” about a year and a half ago, he said. He was inspired in part by Always Coming Home, by Ursula K. Le Guin, in which the novelist created a “future anthropology” of California. “The book includes a couple maps of the California Central Valley and how it looks after the sea levels have risen,” said Linn. “That got me thinking, ‘How would the world around me look once all the world’s ice sheets were to melt?’ ”
The maps are studded with in-jokes for locals, “clever place names, to temper the horror of what could actually happen with a bit of humor,” Linn said. “Gallows humor, I suppose.”
A drowned New York City becomes N.Y. Sea, where an underwater Central Park is now called Central Shark. On the other coast, a protected bay near Hollywood is named Los Atlantis.
Linn sent a poster of his map of drowned Portland, Oregon, titled “Islands of Portland,” to Le Guin, who lives there—and whose 1971 novel The Lathe of Heaven is set in a climate-changed future Portland. “I got a very nice note back,” he said. “She really appreciated it.”
Linn hopes to publish a book of sea-level-rise maps, a sort of atlas of a drowned world. In the meantime he’s put posters of his maps for sale on his website, spatialities.com.
Linn is also contributing maps to Dreams of a Low Carbon Future, a graphic novel about global warming in the United Kingdom cities of York and Leeds. A group at the University of Leeds is producing the book, which is set 200 years in the future.
SEE BELOW FOR THE 1001STTIME THE REITERATION OF DEMAND PAYMENT OF RETIREMENT PAY WHICH SHELL REFUSED TO HONOR IN THE PRESENCE AND DEEMED APPROVAL OF THE HONORABLE MAGISTRATES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PHILIPPINES
From an article published 16 February 2015 by The Tide under the headline:
What’s Causing the Huge Spike in Earthquakes in Oklahoma?
