■OIL
Petrobas finds new source
Petrobras on Monday announced a new find of light crude oil in the huge Campos basin area in the southeast, potentially as much as 25 million barrels. Brazil’s state oil giant said the find is located in shallow waters, north of the Campo de Marimba. “Recoverable volume is estimated at 25 million barrels,” Petrobras said in a statement. Because there is operational infrastructure nearby, the new reserves should begin to be extracted by next August, Petrobras said.
■SECURITIES
LSE fines Regal Petroleum
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has fined oil explorer Regal Petroleum £600,000 (US$1 million) for releasing misleading information to investors but none of the individuals involved were censured. The LSE said statements Regal released between 2003 and 2005 presented an overly rosy picture of oil reserves at a Greek prospect and the company was slow in telling investors when drilling revealed an absence of oil. The news of the dry Greek wells prompted an 80 percent drop in Regal shares and led investors to force founder and major shareholder Frank Timis to resign as chairman.
■FINANCE
Lagarde calls for probe
France’s finance minister has called on global regulators to probe potential competition abuses in the financial sector following huge government bailouts and consolidation, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Christine Lagarde said some institutions had become too powerful in the financial sector, which has been consolidated in the wake of the global economic crisis by banking failures and mergers. “We need to make sure that we do not create institutions that have a competitive advantage,” Lagarde told the Financial Times in an interview.
■AVIATION
EasyJet profit falls 14%
British low-cost airline EasyJet yesterday reported a 14 percent drop in annual profit to £71.2 million. The company’s pre-tax profit was down 65 percent to £43.7 million compared with the previous year. EasyJet said total revenue was up 13 percent to £2.667 billion thanks to a reduction in its competitors’ capacity, the strength of its own network and strong ancillary revenue such as in-flight food sales.
■FOOD
Tokyo overtakes Paris
Tokyo has overtaken Paris as the city with the world’s most Michelin three-star restaurants, the publisher of the renowned culinary guide said yesterday. The latest edition of the Michelin guide awarded 11 Tokyo eateries the coveted three stars — one more than Paris. The Japanese capital also kept its title as the world’s most-starred city with 261 stars in total — 34 more than last year — awarded to 197 restaurants.
■CURRENCY
IMF favors new exchange
The imperative of greater global currency stability means the world can no longer rely, as it has done since the end of the gold standard, on a currency issued by a single country, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. He restated his view that a new global currency might evolve out of the Special Drawing Right, the IMF’s in-house unit of account. “That probably has to be a basket,” Strauss-Kahn said of the eventual replacement for the dollar. “In a globalized world there is no domestic solution.”
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