■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.”
MILESTONE: The foreign minister called the signing ‘a major step forward in US-Taiwan relations,’ while the Presidential Office said it was a symbol of the nations’ shared values US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the state department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct a review “not less than every five years.” It must then submit an updated report based on its findings “not later
The Presidential Office today thanked the US for enacting the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law, signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday, is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct such a review "not less than every five years." It must then submit an updated
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
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