What would Americans think of the French strike?

Over a million people have taken part in protests against pension reforms By Matthew Price BBC News, France The widespread protests against the French government’s plans to raise the age of retirement from 60 to 62 are part of a wider battle about the future of French society and how much the government spends to support the poor. I am going through a little bit of culture shock. For the last three years I have been based in the US. And the only protests I have covered, the only ones vocal enough to have been worth reporting on, have been angry mobs demanding the government stop spending and get out of their lives. Now, just one week into my new role as Europe correspondent, I am faced with angry mobs demanding the exact opposite – an end to government cut backs and a promise that the state will continue to provide for them. Talk about a change of scene. Oil tankers have been stranded outside Marseille for weeks The Americans could never stomach – or indeed even understand – what has been happening in Marseille. The stench of rotting oranges, old coffee grounds and the occasional soiled nappy, sticks in the nose as you walk through the narrow lanes of the old city. And every day that the rubbish collectors remain on strike, the piles of overflowing black bags and cardboard boxes grow ever higher. Wind your way past them and down to the port where 1,000 stylish yachts bob quietly, and look out across the sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean, and you will see more evidence of these strikes – the oil tankers anchored offshore waiting for port workers to return to their posts. Then there are the petrol stations – the bright red covers strapped over the pumps which tell you they are “hors service” – out of service. Out of petrol to be more accurate. The strike is taking its toll. Will the French people finally get back what the workers want – a government that sees its main purpose as being to look after the citizens? But what Americans would also perhaps not understand, is how despite this slap in the collective face, everyday life is not on hold. Basically, it is to be expected here. “It’s France – it’s normal, huh?” one man shrugged before heading off back to work. Another, having found a petrol station with supplies said he had to drive around the city a bit, but it was okay. In fact, for a city that has been deemed the epicentre of French union militancy, there was not at first much evidence of it. Yes, there was the rubbish, and the thought in the back of your mind that you might run out of petrol, but where were the picket lines? Road blocks For three glorious hours, I drove along the coast looking for strikers and watching the wind surfers zip across the sea. At one junction leading to a fuel storage depot, a sun-tanned policeman and his swaggering colleagues told me there had been a protest earlier but they had closed it down. Eventually I ended up at a Total refinery, which I knew to have been having problems. Even here – no picket. Just the wind whipping across the massive empty car park out the front and a sign tied across the gates – “plant on strike”. The next day though came word of a shut down at the airport. Strikers had blocked the road to the terminal. This sounded more like it. A proper bit of “argey bargey a la Francaise” surely? Well, not by the time I had made it there. Within an hour or so, the strikers had forced perhaps 100 or so people to abandon their hire cars a short walk from the terminal, and then cleared off. Airport in disarray – job done. ‘Personal responsibility’ Some hours later, I received a call from the main train station. A group had plonked themselves on the tracks in front of a TGV bound for Paris. They shouted for a bit, but again soon vanished. Lightning strikes, I guess you could call them. The big question, of course, is where all this is leading? Is this indeed the big social movement that the unions say it is, a movement that in true revolutionary style will end with the overthrow of the court of Sarkozy? Will the French people finally get back what the workers want – a government that sees its main purpose as being to look after the citizens? My sense is the answer is twice, “Non”. And indeed, most French know the world has changed since the days of the all-embracing welfare state. They know the age of austerity inevitably implies an age of personal responsibility. And personal responsibility is something the Americans I have lived among for the last three years have adopted as a way of life. I am reminded of a trip I took with a truck driver – named DuWayne – from Wisconsin. One thousand kilometres (600 miles) into an epic ride across the states, he mentioned the French lorry drivers’ proclivity to strike. “We’d never do that here,” DuWayne proudly told me. “We work hard.” And it is true – they do. One year he spent 352 days on the road, in order to pay the bills. I told him that the French strike to protect their working conditions, which were far better than anything he had ever known. He looked at me, shocked, as if to say, “You mean the French have it better than us?”   Proposed Pension Reforms:   Raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018 Raise the security contributions qualification from 40.5 to 41.5 years Raise the age pensioners can receive a full state pension from 65 to 67

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9118869.stm

India Hunts For Oil

When Ranbir Singh Butola took over as the managing director of ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) in 2004, the overseas subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), his brief was to expand India’s oil and gas footprint. Not surprising then that Butola has spent the last six years living out of a suitcase, logging countless air miles and crisscrossing as many as four continents in less than a fortnight. Butola’s shopping bill adds up to a whopping Rs 54,000 crore, but he isn’t done yet. According to Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, India’s oil PSUs, led by OVL, have invested nearly $12 billion in acquiring overseas assets, taking the country’s share of oil and gas production from these assets to 8.8 million tonnes in 2009-10.

The rush for oil assets is understandable. Already, the nation’s oil import bill has grown six-fold in the past decade to $85.47 billion, equivalent to almost 7 per cent of the country’s GDP. As the Indian economy continues to expand, oil imports are expected to account for 90 per cent of the country’s requirement by 2030, up from 70 per cent at present. As India’s economic growth depends on a steady supply of oil and gas, it’s imperative for the country to secure oil assets overseas. Explains Deora: “Acquisition of exploration and oil producing properties overseas is a key strategy to enhance oil reserves in the country and reduce our dependence on world’s oil reserves.”

The Planning Commission has earmarked an investment of Rs 45,000 crore in the 11th Plan for the acquisition of oil and gas assets. According to Butola, this entitles him to Rs 9,000 crore annually; however, a lot also would depend on the opportunity and India’s ability to leverage it. Led by Butola, OVL carried out India’s biggest energy acquisition-the London Stock Exchange-listed Imperial Energy for an estimated cost of $1.4 billion. The acquisition, says Butola, will give OVL access to around 80,000 barrels per day by the end of 2011, from the current 7,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. “Imperial has in place reserves of about 3.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent and this takeover would enhance ONGC’s reserves by around 20 per cent,” says the OVL chief.

”Acquisition of exploration and oil producing properties overseas is a key strategy to reduce our dependence on world’s oil reserves” – Murli Deora, Petroleum Minister

Butola, however, agrees that India has made a late entry. “All the national big players in various countries have taken the good acreages in the oil rich regions of the world.” According to Vivek Pandit, director, energy, at FICCI, China has tactfully used its offer of technological assistance and infrastructure-building capability to strengthen its presenc

e in Africa. “Their plan was simple. Give us oil and we wi

ll build your roads, highways, refineries and power projects. The value proposition clicked,” says Pandit. So while China was grabbing the best assets in Africa, OVL’s role remained limited in those crucial years to delivering a few services, with no power to buy property in foreign shores. The power to acquire came only in 1977, with the Navratna tag, but by then India had lost the edge and over the years, China has outpaced India i

n the global quest for energy resources. Armed with a $300-billion sovereign fund, Chinese companies spent a record $32 billion on oil, coal and metals assets abroad. The result: India lost vital deals to the dragon as in the case of a Canadian company with oil fields in central Asia preferring a $4.2-billion takeover bid by China National Petroleum Corp to a

$3.6-billion offer by OVL.

The Government, of course, is quick to explain these losses as a matter of fixing priorities. “We are making efforts to diversify our basket of crude oil imports,” says Sunil Jain, joint secretary (international cooperation), Ministry of Petroleum. “It is not that we lack a strategy or foresight. Each country has its own priorities. Our priority is to ensure that India gets sufficient crude to run its refineries.”

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/114809/FROM%20THE%20MAGAZINE/india-hunts-for-oil.html

Oil price drops on recovery fears

The price of oil has dropped to below $72 a barrel, its lowest level in more than two months, on renewed fears about the strength of the global recovery.

US light crude fell by $1.4, or 2%, to $71.66 a barrel, while London Brent dropped by the same amount to $72.26, after disappointing US home sales data.

Figures showed that existing home sales fell by 27% in July compared with the previous month, to a 10-year low.

The figures also pushed shares on Wall Street lower.

The main Dow Jones index closed down 134 points, or 1.3% at 10,045.

‘Continued pressure’

The weak housing sales figures fuelled concerns about the strength of the recovery of the world’s biggest economy.

They follow weak jobs market data and worse-than-expected retail sales figures released earlier this month in the US.

These have caused investors to question the strength of demand for oil going forward – the price of oil has now fallen by more than $10 a barrel this month.

“The shaky global economy continues to put pressure on crude prices,” said Victor Shum at Purvin and Gertz energy consultants.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11078345