Agreed on the side-lines of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, the 50 year production sharing deal between Kiev and Shell is thought to be the biggest contract in Europe to extract natural gas trapped in shale rock.

As technology continues to advance with the growth of cloud computing and SaaS, data security needs to be at the forefront of every CIO, CEO and IT manager’s mind.

Great leaders concentrate their energies on the things they are good at. They must also inspire others in their organisation to achieve greatness.

Most businesses today, particularly large multinationals (the most noticeable and easiest to scrutinize), are driven by two distinct styles of management; inspiration-led and aspiration-led styles. Whilst they are quite different in their modus operandi, they do have some distinct cross-overs. Neither, however, provides a holistic winning formula in the current economic climate.

Boasting a national footprint in South Africa, with transport depots in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Tzaneen, Imperial Logistics Refrigerated Services (ILRS) today exists as South Africa’s ‘first to market’ service provider.

ChemSystems has been a fixture of the chemicals industry for over five decades. Sales director, Laurence Davies, and business development manager, Charles Du Bois, discuss how the company is now making a name for itself in the oil and gas sector.

CEO Bruce Griffin talks about the potential of a highly expandable, high-grade mineral sands project in Madagascar.

World Titanium Resources is developing the Toliara Sands Project in southwest Madagascar. Initial exploration work was carried out in 1999, leading to the discovery of mineral sands at Ranobe and further north at Ankililoaka, Basibasy and Morombe. Further drilling was undertaken in the next few years and it became clear that the area had the potential to become a significant mineral sands development.

Managing director Alan Wood describes the progression from the supply of hydraulic hoses to inspection services that save downtime and costs for mining operations in Africa.

Barrick Gold’s Granny Smith property in the Western Australian outback is a hotbed of mining industry best practice, technical innovation and community initiatives: with more gold defined annually it has turned into a long term asset.

This increases means that the company has exceeded 50 billion euros in annual turnover for the first time in its history, a feat that comes as a result of growth in emerging markets.

"Emerging markets again contributed double-digit growth helping us exceed 50 billion euros in turnover, an important milestone in our journey to double the size of Unilever from 40 to 80 billion euros whilst reducing our environmental impact," said chief executive Paul Polman.