January 4, 2012
Swiss bankers charged in $1.2 billion tax fraud
Three Swiss bankers have been charged with helping American taxpayers hide more than $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan announced Tuesday. Michael Berlinka, Urs Frei and Roger Keller face up to…
January 4, 2012
Ecuador appeals court rules against Chevron in oil case
An Ecuadorean appeals court has upheld a ruling that Chevron should pay damages totalling $18.2bn (£11.5bn) over Amazon oil pollution. Chevron said the judgement was "illegitimate" and "a fraud". Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was…
January 4, 2012
BP asks Halliburton to pay for Gulf of Mexico spill
Oil giant BP has asked its contractor Halliburton to pay for all costs and damages that arose from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The claims were made in a filing by BP's lawyer Don Haycraft in a US Federal court. BP and Halliburton are…
January 4, 2012
Chinese oil company Sinopec agrees $2.2bn US shale deal
Chinese oil firm Sinopec has agreed a $2.2bn (£1.4bn) deal with Devon Energy, giving it access to shale deposits in the US. Sinopec will get a one-third stake in five new shale projects, with the firms expecting to drill 125 wells this year. China…
January 4, 2012
Oil prices soared Tuesday as tensions grew over key Persian Gulf oil
In midday trading, benchmark crude jumped US$3.55, or 3.6 per cent, to US$102.38 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oil varieties that are imported by US refineries, rose US$3.26, or three per cent, to US$110.64…
January 3, 2012
Iran’s rial slides against US dollar on fresh sanctions
Iran's currency has continued to slide against the US dollar after the United States imposed fresh sanctions targeting its central bank. According to media reports, the rial was being traded at 17,800 to the dollar by money changers in Tehran. The…
January 3, 2012
India Opens Stock Market to Foreign Investors as Its Economy Slows
On January 15, India opens its stock markets for the first time to individual foreign investors who will be able to directly buy and sell Indian equities. Until now, foreign investors could only invest through mutual funds or institutional…
January 2, 2012
Eurozone manufacturing decline persists, PMI survey says
Activity in the eurozone manufacturing sector fell for the fifth successive month in December, but showed a slight improvement on the previous month, a closely-watched survey suggests. The Markit eurozone manufacturing PMI was 46.9, up from…
January 2, 2012
Exxon wins $908m from Venezuela in oil dispute
Oil giant Exxon Mobil has won $908m (£586m) from an arbitration panel after the nationalisation of its Venezuelan oil project in 2007. However, this is less than 10% of what the oil giant had reportedly sought. The International Chamber of…
January 2, 2012
Hyundai and Kia predict slower sales growth in 2012
Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Motors have said they expect sales growth in 2012 to be sharply slower than 2011 due to the global economic downturn. The South Korean carmakers said they expect sales to rise by 6% next year to 7 million vehicles.…