For the first time in four years businesses around the world are more optimistic than pessimistic, with scores rising above 50 across all three areas surveyed: their own prospects; their national economies; and the global economy according to the annual Sage Business Index, which surveys close to 14,000 small and medium sized businesses in 18 countries around the world.

The former Wood Group chief executive and chairman, who is scheduled to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Oil Council World Assembly in November, believes while the oil and gas sector is going through a “difficult time”, there is still reason for great optimism as a result of the government’s about-turn.

Since we last looked at Greenland Minerals and Energy A/S (GME), a subsidiary of Perth (Australia) based Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd, a great deal of progress has been made. To recap, GME entered the Greenland scene in 2007 when it acquired a majority interest in an exploration licence covering the northern Ilimaussaq Complex, subsequently increasing that to 100 percent.

1. Question the status quo

Speaking in June Leni Gas & Oil (LGO) chairman David Lenigas said: "Our Trinidad operations will do 2,000 barrels per day (bpd). Not might, - will." The company is one of the more salient success stories in the Australian entrepreneur and former Lonrho chairman’s portfolio. And the market is backing him: LGO’s shares on London’s AIM market have risen from under a penny in November to over 4-pence at the time of writing.

The opening ceremony was held in the presence of government authorities of Chile, Poland and Japan. Sierra Gorda, one of the largest and fastest-developed mining projects in the world, is located in the Antofagasta region within the Atacama Desert, which is Chile’s largest copper producing region. The mine started feeding ore into its processing plant in July 2014.

Capital Star Steel SA, based in Maputo Province, Mozambique, is a subsidiary of the South African company, Capital Africa Steel (Pty) Ltd (CAS), the company through which Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO) operates its construction materials businesses. WHBO is one of the largest construction companies in Southern Africa, listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange with 12,000 employees, and had a turnover in 2013 of more than R23 million.

Rare earth elements (REEs) continue to be a hot topic. This group of 17 chemically similar elements crucial to the manufacture of many hi-tech products is causing international supply headaches. China currently produces about 90 percent of the world’s rare earths and produces more than 70 percent of the world’s rare earth magnets - neodymium in particular is used to make smaller, more efficient and more powerful magnets used in loudspeakers and computer hard drives.