Written By Unknown on Kamis, 16 April 2015 | 00.11
The company which reported a massive upgrade to an oil find near Gatwick Airport has conceded it was not in a position to properly size it up.
Last week's announcement that up to 100 billion barrels, a potentially "world-class" discovery, had been identified in the Weald Basin sparked excitement and scepticism.
That caution extended to other partners in the project, as previous estimates were as high as 40 billion and as low as 4.4 billion.
Shares in UK Oil & Gas Investments (UKOG) rose by more than 300% at one stage following its original statement last Thursday.
UKOG did not repeat the words "world class" in today's update, which was requested by the junior AIM market on which the company's shares trade.
Video:'Effectively A Sponge Full Of Oil'
It said on Wednesday that the oil volumes in the Horse Hill-1 well in the Weald Basin, estimated by US exploration firm Nutech, "should not be considered as either contingent or prospective resources or reserves."
The company, which holds a 20% stake in the Horse Hill development, also admitted further work was needed to "prove its commerciality."
Its chairman David Lenigas had claimed last week the discovery would create "many thousands of jobs" but did say it would take a long time to begin production.
Another partner in the Weald Basin project, Solo Oil, exercised caution at the time of UKOG's upgrade.
Video:Major Oil Find Near Gatwick
Solo chief executive Neil Ritson told Sky News: "We're not actually putting out that number of a hundred billion barrels. I know that a leading academic - Professor Fraser at Imperial - is talking about 40 billion.
"Certainly those numbers are possible, but that's not where we are at the moment. It's early days."
UKOG had said last week that Nutech had estimated that recovery of the oil would be limited at between 3% and 15% of the total.
It also confirmed there would be no use of the controversial extraction method known as fracking to get access to the oil.
The EU has formally charged Google with abusing its search market position in Europe, leaving it open to a fine of more than $6bn (£4bn).
The European Commission has been examining whether Google, which holds about 90% of the search market in Europe, has been illegally rigging its search results to favour its own services.
Tech rivals such as Microsoft, who urged the EU to bring the case, want more competition in areas like online maps, search and shopping.
EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Google has given "an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service".
Google could face a fine of up to $6bn (£4bn)
Rivals object to the firm placing adverts for its Google Shopping service ahead of other links in relevant searches.
The EU has issued a statement of objections which Google has 10 weeks to respond to before action can be taken.
Ms Vestager said that a separate antitrust investigation has been ordered into Google's mobile operating system Android.
She said: "In the case of Google I am concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust rules.
"Google now has the opportunity to convince the Commission to the contrary. However, if the investigation confirmed our concerns, Google would have to face the legal consequences and change the way it does business in Europe."
An internal Google memo informed staff that the company believes it has a "strong case". In a blog post the tech giant used a series of graphs to show that competition continues to thrive.
The company has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. It could face an eventual fine of up to 10% of its worldwide turnover, which reached $66bn (£44.7bn) in 2014.
The filing of charges may increase pressure on Google to settle, to avoid a potentially damaging case and massive fine resulting from the allegations.
Nick Clegg has warned against a coalition that would see Nigel Farage or Alex Salmond walk through the doors of Number 10 as he launched his party's manifesto.
The Liberal Democrat leader said that come 8 May either David Cameron or Ed Miliband would be prime minister but they would not win a majority government and would not hold the "balance of power".
He said it could be Mr Farage, it could be the SNP's Mr Salmond or it could be himself and the Liberal Democrats who hold the balance of power after the election.
But he described the Liberal Democrats' manifesto as "an insurance policy against a government lurching off to the extremes".
Mr Clegg said only his party could "add a heart to the Conservatives, and a brain to Labour" and only the Lib Dems could help guarantee the right path between the excessive cuts of the Tories and the excessive borrowing of Mr Miliband's party.
Video:Lib Dem Manifesto Highlights
The Lib Dem leader said his party would bring "prosperity for all".
:: Full Coverage Of General Election 2015
:: Liberal Democrats Manifesto At A Glance
He warned voters that a Miliband/Salmond coalition would lead to "reckless borrowing" and urged them to keep Mr Salmond out of Westminster by voting in the Lib Dem candidate in Gordon.
Video:Lib Dem Manifesto: The Key Pledges
And he said: "Imagine for a moment… what will become of our wonderful country in the next five years if Farage gets in."
:: Five Things We've Learned About The Lib Dem Manifesto
The Liberal Democrats are expected to win between 20 and 40 seats at the General Election and could again play the role of kingmaker as neither Labour nor the Tories are expected to win a majority.
Unveiling his party manifesto at a trendy art space in Battersea, Mr Clegg set out five deal-breakers for any future coalition cautioning against a lurch to the Left or the Right.
Video:Lib Dem Manifesto In 60 Seconds
He attempted to persuade voters he could be trusted after the U-turn on tuition fees, which cost the party so much support in the early days of the coalition.
The five pledges on the front of the 160-page manifesto are:
:: Ringfence the education budget from age 2-19
:: Additional £8bn a year funding for NHS by 2020
Video:Need To Know: Labour Pledges
:: Eliminate deficit by 2017-18
:: Raise the income tax personal allowance to £12,500
:: Green laws including decarbonisation target for electricity
Three of them on the NHS, the deficit and income tax - match promises made in the Conservative manifesto.
Video:UKIP Manifesto In 60 Seconds
Mr Clegg is hoping to persuade voters that his party can be the "proven rock of stability, continuity and conscience".
The Lib Dem leader is keen that people should remember the things the Lib Dems delivered in power - and not the things they could not.
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Video:Tory Manifesto In 60 Seconds
This includes lifting thousands out of income tax by increasing the personal allowance, a policy the Conservatives have claimed credit for and put at the centre of their 2015 manifesto.
Despite largely being viewed as the scapegoats for unpopular decisions, Mr Clegg, whose manifesto launch was marred by a technical glitch that saw him fall off air during the question session, said that every day in coalition had been worth it because they had helped to make Britain better.
And, like Mr Cameron, he implored voters to be allowed to finish the job.
The Liberal Democrat launch comes on the same day as UKIP's - the other party looking to appeal to the Conservatives in the event of coalition building.
Nokia is to buy Alcatel-Lucent in a €16.5bn deal in an apparent bid to take on Ericsson and become the world's leading telecoms equipment firm.
The all-share transaction, which has the support of the French government, will create a combined company with more than 110,000 staff and give it a 35% share of the mobile equipment market.
Alcatel-Lucent, which has been loss-making since its creation in 2006 through the merger of France's Alcatel and US-based Lucent Technologies, will have 33.5% of the new company with its investors netting 0.55 shares for each of their old shares.
Nokia will control the remaining 66.5%.
The Finnish firm, which has turned around its fortunes since the sale of its handset business to Microsoft, now concentrates its work in three key areas of networks, mapping services and technologies and patents.
The sector is facing weak growth prospects and pressure from low-cost Chinese players Huawei and ZTE.
The combined company will be known as Nokia and be based in Finland with "a strong presence in France," Nokia said.
Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri was upbeat on the takeover, saying he firmly believed it was "the right deal, with the right logic, at the right time."
But analysts warned that their operations crossed over in some areas and the merger likely would cause layoffs and cuts.
Nokia is known to employ 800 staff in the UK and Alcatel around 1,000 after already cutting 300 roles at three sites last year.
Nokia shares rose 3% at the opening of trading on Wednesday while Alcatel-Lucent fell 11%.
One of the independent scrutineers of banking regulators' inquiry into the collapse of HBOS is to be named as the new chairman of Shawbrook, one of the start-up lenders spawned by the 2008 financial crisis.
Sky News has learnt that Iain Cornish is close to being appointed to the role, with an announcement to the London Stock Exchange expected in the coming days.
Mr Cornish, a former chief executive of the Yorkshire Building Society, has been assisting banking watchdogs with their HBOS probe, the publication of which has been delayed several times, sparking anger from parliamentarians.
Last month, he stepped down from the board of the Prudential Regulation Authority in order to take up an unspecified position elsewhere.
Insiders confirmed that the Shawbrook chairmanship was the post to which that statement had referred.
Mr Cornish will replace Sir George Mathewson, the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief who led the bank before handing over the reins to Fred Goodwin.
Sir George's intention to leave Shawbrook was disclosed in last month's announcement about its stock market listing, which raised nearly £100m.
The challenger bank, which was set up in 2011 to exploit the decline in asset finance and commercial mortgage lending to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) by big high street lenders, is valued by the market at just over £760m.
Coincidentally, Mr Cornish this week replaced Sir George in another boardroom role, that of senior independent director of Arrow Group, the debt collection agency.
The board reshuffle at Shawbrook comes amid a flurry of corporate activity involving challenger banks, with rival Aldermore also seeing its shares perform well since their debut.
The listings have highlighted the appetite among investors for shares in well-run banks not saddled by legacy issues, and offering an attractive return on equity.
Shawbrook saw rapid customer loan growth in 2014 of 70% to £2.3bn, while pre-tax profit trebled to more than £50m.
A string of other start-up banks have begun to emerge in the years since the banking crash, including Metro Bank and OakNorth, which recently announced that Lord Turner, the former chairman of the Financial Services Authority, would join its board.
Meanwhile, Atom Bank, a digital-only venture, has also recruited a number of prominent City figures and is in the process of raising £75m to fund its launch plans.
New measures to promote competition in banking were unveiled in last month's Budget and have featured in both the Conservative and Labour General Election manifestos.
The Competition and Markets Authority is due to conclude an inquiry into the personal current accounts and SME banking markets later this year.
China's Statistics Bureau has published the country's GDP figure for the first quarter of 2015 - a growth rate of 7%.
For most Western markets that's an enviable figure. For China though, it represents the slowest growth for six years.
Yet the Chinese government says this is the "new normal". Gone are the days of double digit growth.
A graph of vacant floor space in China
It says 7% is "within a reasonable range" and in line with controlled adjustments designed to slow the economy down to a level of sustainable growth.
China is in the midst of shifting its economy from an export-based market to one driven by domestic consumption.
Video:January: China Growth Slows to 7.4%
Since the global crash of 2008, China has been unable to rely on its exports to drive its economy.
Despite a partial recovery globally, trade growth across the world remains well below pre-crash trends. So China is trying to increase the spending power of its own people.
The question is whether the declining GDP figures over the past 18 months or so point to a controlled slowdown or hard landing.
"Slower growth should not be viewed as bad news if it means the economy is adjusting to a more sustainable path," says Andrew Colquhoun, head of Asia-Pacific Sovereigns at Fitch Ratings.
"But the adjustment needs support from consumption while the economy adapts to slower investment. It's sobering that the economy has become so reliant on construction and real estate to generate jobs."
The property market is a key risk for the Chinese economy. It makes up about 15% of GDP.
Take a look at our recent visit to a Chinese ghost city for a snapshot of the property market in China.
A breakdown of the first quarter (Q1) figures for this year is revealing too. Industrial output grew at a rate of 5.6%, down from 6.8% in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2014.
The predicted rate for Q1 was 6.9%, so the actual rate was slower than expected. Factories were shut for some time over Chinese New Year, which falls in Q1, but analyst predictions would have taken this into account.
Video:January: Inside China's Ghost City
Retail sales in Q1 of 2015 grew 10.2%, with the prediction for 10.9%. The figure in Q4 of 2014 was 11.7%.
Given that the plan is to increase domestic consumption, this isn't a good trend.
It's also odd that retail sales would be slow during Chinese New Year when people would traditionally be shopping.
China's crackdown on corruption might be part of the explanation: the tradition of buying "gifts" (bribes) at Chinese New Year is on the decline.
A final thought. Can we trust the 7% figure? Could the true figure be different?
China's Prime Minister Li Keqiang once said that GDP figures were "for reference only". For the true figure, he said, look at things like electricity output.
Erik Britton from UK consultancy Fathom has done just that.
His firm's analysis of Chinese rail freight, electricity production and bank lending, suggests that Chinese growth is running at closer to 3%, not the 7% Beijing is boasting.
That, says Mr Britton, is a hard landing in the making.
Staff described by their union as the "public face" of Windsor Castle have voted to take industrial action in a pay dispute.
The 76 wardens, all members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, voted by 84% in favour of action short of a strike, which could start from the end of April.
Turnout was 82%.
The union said the wardens are employed by the Royal Collection Trust, a charitable arm of the Royal Households, to work at the entrance to the castle, around the grounds and inside the castle protecting artworks and helping visitors.
The dispute centred on the wardens being "expected" to carry out extra duties, such as giving tours of the castle to fee-paying visitors, without pay.
Any industrial action, the PCS added, would probably involve withdrawing from such activities.
Its general secretary, Mark Serwotka, added: "These loyal workers are the public face of Windsor Castle and with this vote their message to their employer is loud and clear.
"Staff should be properly rewarded for their commitment to ensuring visitors from around the world can fully enjoy their time at the castle."
Salaries of the wardens can start at £14,400 a year.
The union claimed staff only narrowly accepted an "unsatisfactory" pay offer last year on the understanding that additional allowances for paid-for tours and other skills would be considered this year.
The Royal Collection Trust said the ballot was "disappointing" but would not affect visitors.
It said: "Following the union ballot, we have been informed that some PCS-affiliated wardens at Windsor Castle will no longer participate in various activities undertaken during their working day, including using their language and first-aid skills, and conducting tours of specific areas of the Castle during August and September.
"These activities have never been compulsory; it has always been the choice of the individual as to whether they take part.
"Royal Collection Trust has since last year been exploring ways to achieve an agreed level of pay for all warden staff.
"Conversations that are part of the annual pay review process are still ongoing and an offer to expand the salary scale for a warden, starting at the Regional Living Wage of £14,695 for new joiners (based upon an average 36 hour working week), has been put to PCS and other unions."
