UPDATE 1-US prepared if oil spills in Cuban waters-regulator
* Regulator, coast guard will inspect Repsol rigBy Roberta RamptonWASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has
issued licenses for oil spill containment and cleanup equipment
for use by U.S. companies in case of an oil spill in Cuban
waters, where a Spanish oil company will soon begin drilling,
the U.S. drilling regulator said on Tuesday.The government is evaluating the safety and emergency plans
of Repsol YPF , which plans to explore for oil
5,600 feet (1,706 meters) deep in the Gulf of Mexico later this
year when a Chinese-made rig arrives, said Michael Bromwich,
head of the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental
Enforcement.The development is a delicate environmental and political
issue for the U.S. government, which wants to protect its
coastline from oil spills while abiding by its trade embargoCuba has said it believes it may have 20 billion barrels of
oil offshore. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated the
reserves at 5 billion barrels.U.S. Coast Guard officials and the drilling regulator will
inspect the rig when it reaches Trinidad and Tobago on its way
to Cuba, Bromwich said at a hearing on Capitol Hill.The rig, called Scarabeo 9, is owned by a unit of Italian
oil company Eni SpA’s . Repsol, in partnership with
Norway’s Statoil and India’s ONGC ,
plans to drill at least one well off Cuba, then pass the rig
over to Malaysia’s state-owned oil company Petronas.”The U.S. government will immediately use all appropriate
resources and authorities to conduct response operations in the
event an oil spill from activities in Cuban waters … threaten
U.S. waters or its coastline,” Bromwich said in his written
testimony.The U.S. Commerce Department has issued licenses for
equipment such as booms, skippers and dispersants for use by US
companies in Cuban waters, and is considering applications for
licenses for other equipment, Bromwich said.The U.S. State and Treasury departments can issue licenses
for U.S. companies to help in case of a spill, Bromwich said.Bromwich’s agency was formed in the wake of the largest
offshore oil disaster in U.S. history, when an explosion on the
Deepwater Horizon rig in 2010 ruptured BP’s Macondo well,
spilling more than 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of
MexicoA commission that investigated the spill recommended the
U.S. government develop joint safety rules with Cuba for the
region, much as it did with Mexico.
UPDATE 1-Cara to buy Prime Restaurants for C$58.9 mln
Prime, which owns brands such as East Side Mario’s, Casey’s,
Fionn MacCool’s, D’Arcy McGee’s, Paddy Flaherty’s, Tir nan Og,
and Bier Markt, will also use cash in hand to pay a special
dividend of 25 Canadian cents a share to its shareholders.The deal is expected to close by January 4.Shares of Prime Restaurants were trading up 40 percent at
C$6.80 on Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Kuwait’s NIG in talks to sell 20 pct Mabanee stake
“The group will inform the stock exchange if it reaches any
deal to sell its stake,” NIG said in a statement on the Kuwaiti
bourse website on Sunday.NIG’s shares were up 1.9 percent on the Kuwaiti bourse at
GMT 0800 on Sunday after the statement, while Mabanee’s shares
were down 1 percent at 0.880 dinars ($3.223).
($1 = 0.276 Kuwaiti Dinars)
(Wrting by Eman Goma, Editing by Dinesh Nair)
Indian Hindu wives fast, sometimes luxuriously, for husbands health
(Indian women with their hands decorated with henna paste pray during the Hindu festival of Karva Chauth inside a temple’s premises in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh October 7, 2009/Ajay Verma)
Foreign language Oscar brings 63 entrants
Among some of the more talked about foreign language titles already in 2011 are Polish entry “In Darkness,” a Holocaust drama that played well at September’s Toronto International Film Festival, and Spain’s “Black Bread,” which earlier this year won nine of its home country’s top awards, the “Goyas.”The motion picture academy will narrow the list of 63 films to five nominees that will be named on January 24. The Oscars take place on February 26, at a gala ceremony in Los Angeles.A full list of foreign language entrants can be found at the academy’s website at www.oscars.org.
Is the U.S. economy heading for a double-dip recession?
Is the U.S. economy heading for another recession?
Two investment strategists who spoke to a group of Thomson Reuters brokerage clients at a conference in Phoenix on Tuesday say the chances are slim. Despite the bear market blues, David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise, says a double dip recession is unlikely. The U.S. is destined to be in two percent growth environment for the foreseeable future — “or 2.5 percent, if we are lucky,” Joy says.
Rick Robinson, regional chief investment officer at Wells Fargo, who is based in Scottsdale, Arizona, told attendees the chance of a recession in the U.S. is about 35 percent. However, the construction and manufacturing industries in the U.S. are operating at “Depression-like” levels, he says.
The downturn in equities presents a long-term buying opportunity in U.S. as well as foreign stocks, Joy says, but he notes that investors need a time horizon of at least three years. “If you have a five-year time horizon, even better,” he says. When asked when the Dow Jones Industrial Average will hit 20,000, Joy says it won’t happen until 2025. “I hope I’m wrong,” he quips.
Robinson says the 20,000 threshold may be reached even sooner, but first the U.S. economy needs to deal with current credit issues — for example, municipalities are cash-strapped and banks are holding bad mortgages. That deleveraging will take five to seven years to work its way through the financial system, he adds.
The silver lining? While stocks are in the dumps, the financial industry is in decent shape, Robinson says. “We don’t think this is like 2008. The banks and the government have had three years to address their balance sheets. Banks are better capitalized than they were in 2008,” Robinson says.
While the global economy is sluggish, a bigger worry for the markets is more psychological than fundamental, says Joy, who is based in Boston. “The problem is we are just stuck,” Joy says. And he blames gridlock in Washington for much of America’s mental anguish. “The debt ceiling debate was a debilitating event for psyche of the U.S. investor, even more than the Lehman Brothers collapse,” Joy says.
Joy knows the pain American consumers are feeling firsthand: His Boston-area home has been on the market since January 2010, while he’s carrying another home in a community for empty nesters. “Thankfully,” he says. “My new home has actually gained a bit in value since we bought it.”
Is the U.S. headed for a double-dip recession?
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