Oil, Oil

This one's about oil. It is an economic report and discusses the enormous amounts of money that the big players are willing to pay in order to gain rights over remaining, yet diminishing, resources. Chinese company Sinopec has just paid $1 billion to buy the right to explore for oil off the coast of Angola, and this is not the first surprisingly high bid that has been made recently. As companies become increasingly desperate to divine more resources to exploit, they are willing to pay higher and higher prices, as this article discusses.


Another oil story concerns the recent slick off the North Welsh coast. It comes as a serious blow, so soon after the recent slick (see June 26) and is in almost the same place in the Menai strait, separating Anglesey from the Welsh Mainland. This time it was leaked from Caernarfon, and reports reached Holyhead's coastguard service in the early hours of yesterday morning. The Environment Agency (see links) are now involved and will be monitoring the situation. It is believed to be smaller than the slick a fortnight ago, at about one mile long and is believed to be being broken down naturally by waves. The EA see this is the nest solution as it will minimise the environmental impact of the slick. Here's the BBC story and here's ICWales's coverage.