USA - President Barack Obama: End Tax Breaks for Big Oil

Published on Mar 29, 2012 by AssociatedPress

President Barack Obama says Americans are getting hit twice _ once at the gas pump, and once more by sending billions of dollars in tax subsidies to oil companies. (March 29)

Facebook to Announce Its IPO in May which could value the company at $100 billion.

Uploaded by FinancialNewsOnline on Mar 29, 2012

The most popular social networking site is hitting the public market very soon.

Facebook just announced that it will be halting the trading of its shares on secondary markets this Friday at noon as it prepares to finalize everything for its initial public offering.

According to the Wall Street journal, the website's IPO will be in May which could value the company at $100 billion.

Also recently there's been trouble with Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who wants at least $5 billion more from Wall Street investors to finalize the IPO. However, he didn't give them much face time by skipping the company's first major briefing for analysts and bankers last week.

The lead underwriter for the IPO is investment bank Morgan Stanley which will be featured in an upcoming video that will be shown when Facebook begins courting investors.

North Sea - Total says no blast risk as North Sea gas leak drama

Published on Mar 29, 2012 by Euronews

http://www.euronews.com/ The French oil giant, Total, has dismissed the risk of a blast at its Elgin North Sea platform despite efforts continuing to stem leaking natural gas.

The firm says a flame on the rig off the east coast of Scotland has to remain burning to prevent excess gas pressure from building up.

According to Total's spokesman Pierre-Emmanuel Saulnier the material being thrown into the atmosphere is not dagerous or excessive: "it's around 30 cubic metres. That's about the size of half an articulated lorry. It's too much of course, but it's not going to have a significant impact on the environment."

Total is said to be considering drilling a relief well that would allow the flow of gas to be shut off, or blocking the well with heavy mud. Either way, some experts say an "explosion is waiting to happen."

Environmentalist, Benoit Hartman, from France Nature said: "Hydrocarbons are becoming more and more difficult to find as they're drying up. So we're having to look for non-conventional hydrocarbons which are difficult to extract and normally aren't profitable. But now they're becoming so because fuel prices are increasing. This means we can expect more accidents like this."


The Scottish government has called for more information from Total as memories are still raw in the North Sea industry of the Piper Alpha platform fire 24 years ago, when 167 people were killed in the world's deadliest offshore oil disaster.

Spain - Angry Spaniards Strike Over Labour Reforms

Published on Mar 29, 2012 by AssociatedPress

Spanish unions staged a general strike Thursday to protest labour reforms brought in by the country's new conservative government. They tried to drag the country to a crawl with their walkout, but the government downplayed the effects. (March 29)