Ukraine has signed a major shale gas deal with global oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, a significant step towards weaning itself off Russian gas imports.
Due to be signed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the 50-year production sharing agreement, reportedly worth $10 billion, will mark the biggest contract yet to tap shale gas in Europe and the largest single foreign investment in the former Soviet republic.
According to the 2012 Norton Cybercrime Report by Symantec, nearly 556 million people around the world last year fell victim to cybercrimes, such as computers viruses or email scams, costing nearly $110 billion in damages to consumers.
For those of us long accustomed to using terms such as “kilobytes”, “megabytes”, “gigabytes” and “terabytes”, the idea of a “zettabyte” may appear to be a distant concept that will only come into fruition many years from now.
Electric cars have been touted the future of motoring as the supplies of oil dwindle and the cost of fuel at the pump sky rockets. But if every car was electric, how much would the government stand to lose in terms of road tax and more significantly fuel duty? Will the shortfall be accepted in this age of budget austerity?
Electric cars are often heralded as the future of motoring: Energy efficient, environmentally friendly and economical. But what would actually happen if every motorist did go down the electric car route?
2012 has been a stellar year for oil and gas. From East Africa to North America, new technology, major new discoveries, an unparalleled appetite for exploration and a metamorphosing perception of risk have changed the playing field.
We’re looking at potential rather than existing production, and here are our Top 5 picks for this year:
We have to start with Kenya, the biggest success story of the year.
Mattel, the world’s largest toymaker by revenues, may be renowned for producing Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels, but this year, their number-one selling product has actually been a simple plastic cellphone case, reported the Financial Times on Sunday, with more and more children today now increasingly exposed to technology devices, forsaking playtime with traditional toys.
There’s been plenty of talk about potentially radical US foreign policy changes as a result of the shale boom. While one shouldn’t expect any dramatic US foreign policy move away from the Middle East, factors are influencing a greater focus on Asia. Only one thing is certain in this transforming world: The shale boom is real and the implications are many and difficult to predict.
The web is ubiquitous. Everywhere we go, it comes with us.
But we don’t often wrap our heads around just how big the web really is. How many people are using it, how many videos are viewed each day, just how big the mobile explosion really is, how much data is out there and being consumed every day.
The number of Internet users worldwide crossed 2 billion this year, almost twice what it was 5 years ago. More countries are going online, and there is no stoppage of growth in the foreseeable future.
The American states of Colorado and Washington have gone beyond the decriminalising policies in place in European countries like the Netherlands and Portugal by becoming the first modern jurisdictions to legalise marijuana – with far-reaching legal, social and economic repercussions.
BP’s quest to drill for oil in Russia’s arctic region has thus far been a roller coaster ride of corporate cobwebs and political power plays. Yet despite facing incredible difficulties in pursuing Russian ventures, BP is clearly convinced that the stakes are high enough and the likely returns strong enough to make the hassle worthwhile.
