Europe

Angola has officially announced the selection of Statoil as an operator and partner in several offshore pre-salt blocks.

Angola’s national oil company Sonangol organised a restricted public bid round for access to pre-salt acreage in the Kwanza Basin in Angola. Pre-salt blocks are blocks where the main prospective interval was deposited prior to underwater salt accumulation millions of years ago.

Permission has been granted for construction of the final nine kilometres of the Corrib Gas Pipeline in Ireland.

The final stretch of the pipeline will bring gas onshore from the Corrib Gas Field, located 83 kilometres off Ireland’s north-west coast. The onshore section of pipeline will be underground along its entire route, linking the end of the offshore pipeline at Glengad to the gas terminal at Bellanaboy, County Mayo.

Permission was granted by Ireland’s planning board, An Bord Pleanála.

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways has expressed “top level interest” in the UK airline Virgin Atlantic, according to reports.

According to the Sunday Times newspaper, the chief executive of Etihad has written to Deutsche Bank, who Virgin Atlantic hired last year to examine the aviation market and identify growth opportunities, to express his interest in acquiring the airline.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad has so far refused to comment on the reports.

Petra Diamonds has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Finsch diamond mine in South Africa from De Beers.

Finsch is one of the world’s major diamond mines and South Africa’s second largest diamond mine by production. Petra said its acquisition marked a continuation of the company’s strategy to build a world-class diamond mining group.

Finsch will become Petra’s second major mine producing over one million carats per annum (mctpa), and will become its eighth producing diamond mine.

Spain’s biggest power utility, Iberdrola, is set to acquire Brazil’s Elektro for €2.4 billion in a move designed to expand its presence in growing markets.

The purchase of Elektro, a distribution company which serves 2.2 million clients in Sao Paulo state, will turn Iberdrola into one of the leading operators in Brazil’s electricity sector. It will also complement the company’s existing presence in north-eastern Brazil.

The global market for coatings is forecast to reach almost $100 billion by 2015, according to research by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA).

The new GIA report, Coatings: A Global Strategic Business Report, predicts that the market will expand to $98.69 billion in the next five years, led by rapid industrialization, economic activity and vibrant demand from automotive and construction sectors in developing countries.

Meggitt, the UK engineering group, has announced it is to buy US-based Pacific Scientific Aerospace (PSA) in a deal worth $685 million (£428 million).

Dorset-based Meggitt, which makes engine-monitoring systems for Airbus and Boeing planes, said the acquisition would add fire and smoke suppression to its existing product portfolio, creating an integrated fire and smoke detection and suppression capability increasingly being demanded by its customers.

The UK and Cuba have formed a joint venture to build biomass power plants adjacent to sugar mills, it has been announced.

The agreement marks one of the largest renewable energy partnerships between the two nations.

Havana Energy, a UK group chaired by former UK energy minister Brian Wilson, will form a joint venture with Zerus, a state-owned company within Cuba’s Ministry of Sugar, to build up to five power plants fuelled by bagasse, the fibre that remains after sugar cane processing.

Online retail giant Amazon is to create 950 new jobs across two sites in Scotland, it has been announced.

The majority of the posts—750—will be created at a newly-built plant distribution centre in Dunfermline, Fife, with another 200 jobs being added at the firm's warehouse in Gourock, Inverclyde. At times of peak demand, up to 1,500 temporary jobs could also be created at the warehouse.

Businesses can protect their reputation and boost their chances of survival by tightening up the supply chain, as John Kinge, head of Risk at Exor Management Services (EMS), explains.