Asked this week whether he believed Moscow would again cut off gas to Ukraine and therefore to much of Europe this winter, Andris Piebalgs, the European energy commissioner, said he thought it a “realistic probability.” Some 80% of Russian gas supplies to the European Union pass through Ukraine and gas to Ukraine can’t be interrupted without also stopping flows further west.

Will The Ukraine Pipeline Be Shut Off Again?

But not everyone views this prospect with the same dread as East European householders. One suspects senior executives at some major European energy companies would be secretly delighted if Russia stopped gas deliveries. The reason: they could buy the gas far cheaper on the world market than they are buying it from Russia.

In fact, this has the makings of a serious longer term challenge for OAO Gazprom, the state Russian gas monopoly that supplies 40% of the European Union’s gas. The gas giant has short-term worries too. Gas demand has collapsed in Europe with the economic slowdown. Gazprom’s sales to big European buyers such as E.On, BASF, Eni and GDF Suez have fallen to minimum contract levels, probably about 80% of contracted amounts, energy specialists say.

Unlike last winter, gas storage is full — though there remain EU countries such as Bulgaria with almost no storage. The buyers would love to take even less from Gazprom but they can’t because, under their so-called take or pay contracts, they would have to pay fines if they do.

Read More>The Wall Street Journal

The scramble to secure a viable future for JAL is primed to trigger turmoil throughout the global airline industry as rival alliances lunge for its extensive collection of international routes. For carriers in the United States, JAL’s crisis represents a rare opportunity to extend their foothold in the Asian market.

An American Buyout Poses Threat To One World

Two cash-injection offers, each worth more than $1 billion (£596 million), are now on the table for JAL as American Airlines and Delta Airlines vie to buy the critical partnership. If Delta could lure JAL to the SkyTeam alliance, analysts said that the move would deal a heavy blow to British Airways and other members of the OneWorld grouping.

Despite the offers, however, the market remained focused on the risk of bankruptcy. Yesterday’s surprise change of position by the Japanese Transport Minister could herald something most Japanese thought they would never live to witness: the Government allowing a national flag carrier to fail, exactly 22 years since it was privatised amid a great fanfare.

Read More>Times Online

Pitched ambitiously as “a third hub for Tokyo”, the nearly completed airport may represent one of the twilight lunacies in Japan’s 30-year obsession with public spending.

The country’s addiction has created a public debt mountain worth nearly 190 per cent of GDP and a wasteful network of roads to nowhere, suspension bridges over mountain streams and dozens of “zombie airports”.

Tokyo's New Third Hub Is 80km away!

As the country’s 99th airport, Ibaraki is nowhere near Tokyo, doomed to make losses from the outset and the passenger projections that were used to justify its construction were almost certainly plucked from thin air. Its opening comes as most regional airports are in the red and more than 70 per cent of domestic routes are being run below their break-even levels of passenger numbers.

 
But it is unfair, according to Ibaraki airport’s future managers, to describe the £180 million hub (the military provided the runway) as a total failure. Yes, it has no public transport system ready to connect the place with the outside world; yes, Tokyo already has two huge airports with expanding capacity; and, yes, Japan Airlines and All Nippon, the domestic carriers, refuse to touch it with a bargepole.

However, the “open gateway to Asia” will be handling one small aircraft per day. The precious flight — owned by Asiana, the South Korean carrier — will fly in from Seoul and then make the return journey. People might use the daily flight, Land Ministry officials suggest, to fly over and play golf.

Read More>Times Online

The company is also mulling over plans to significantly bolster its research and development presence in China – a market that it has failed to exploit with anything like the efficiency it has penetrated Europe and the US. The local R&D base would supposedly allow the Japanese company to better tailor its vehicles to the local market.

Toyota Boosted By Scrappage Scheme

Toyota’s return to profit followed the announcement on Wednesday that it would leave Formula One racing before the 2010 season begins – a move that may save the company about $300 million (£181 million) a year, but which will cause an estimated $200 million of international brand exposure to vanish overnight. The company’s tearful public withdrawal from the sport, said analysts, portends further aggressive cost-cutting.

The glimpse of Y21.8 billion (£146 million) of black ink at the end of the July to August quarter was a welcome surprise for investors, but is unlikely to prevent the carmaker from logging its first full year of losses since Toyota switched from making sewing looms to cars 60 years ago.

Read More>Times Online

The agreement to develop the Rumaila field, near the southern city of Basra, will potentially put Iraq on the path to rivalling the riches of Saudi Arabia within a decade — if the Government can fend off corrupt officials, continuing terrorist attacks on pipelines and political uncertainty.

BP Aims To Bring Iraq On A Par With Saudi Arabia

Many Iraqi MPs say that the deal is illegal, and that the constitution should give them, not the Oil Minister, the final say over the country’s vast resources.

BP will develop the field, believed to hold about 17 billion barrels of oil, with CNPC, a Chinese oil producer and supplier. Along with other agreements to be signed this year, BP’s presence is forecast to increase Iraqi production from 2.5 million barrels a day to 7 million in about six years.

Read More>Times Online

The decision was taken because business has become too expensive to operate. McDonalds have blamed the crisis on the “unique operational complexity” of doing business in an isolated country with a population of a mere 300,000.
(Source: gair rhydd)

McDonalds To Exit Iceland

The costs have doubled over the past year and even though sales have never been better the margin is so low that they feel they cannot sustain the business.

Read More>4Hoteliers

Los Angeles City Council has approved a multimillion-dollar proposal to use Google’s range of office products for its 30,000 workers.

The deal could be a landmark for the search giant as it seeks to wrest market share for office software from Microsoft and IBM. It introduced Google Apps, which includes e-mail, word processing and spreadsheet tools, three years ago.

Google Apps

The technology is positioned as a rival to Microsoft’s dominant Office suite of software, which helped to deliver $2.9 billion (£1.8 billion) in revenue for the company’s business division in the last quarter.

The city council voted unanimously for the $7.2 million deal to replace many of its computer systems with the Google Apps services, choosing this offer over competing bids from Microsoft and more than a dozen other technology firms eager to win America’s second-largest city as a client.

The vote came amid a push by Google to market its “cloud computing” Apps services — applications that run remotely on the company’s own servers, instead of users’ desktop machines — to governments and large, security-conscious corporations.

Read More>Times Online

“We’re in serious discussions with our investors about making an offer,” Jakob Chief Executive Officer Peder Fast said in a phone interview today from Gothenburg, Sweden, where Volvo is based. Fast, a Volvo engineer, declined to identify the partners or say how much the group is prepared to offer.

Rivals bidding for Volvo

Ford said yesterday it has narrowed talks on the sale of Volvo to one bidder, China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ford hasn’t made a final decision and has “no specific timeline” to conclude the discussions, the Dearborn, Michigan- based automaker said.

Geely is prepared to pay about $2 billion for Volvo, less than a third of Ford’s purchase price a decade ago, people familiar with the talks have said.

“My understanding is this isn’t just about the amount,” Fast said, adding that his group has an “open dialogue” with Ford. “There are many factors to consider, such as long-term industrial cooperation and intangible rights.”
Read More>Bloomberg

 
The UK came 12th in the Legatum Prosperity Index, which ranks countries based on a combination of economic factors and happiness and quality of life.
Britain managed a respectable but unexciting mid-table finish in a Premier League of the top 20 most prosperous nations, with the top spots dominated by Scandinavian countries.

Finland (1), Sweden (3), Denmark (4) and Norway (5) made up the top five, along with Switzerland (2).

The UK was pushed out of the top ten by New Zealand and Ireland, but came above Germany and France.

Hong Kong (18), Spain (19) and Slovenia (20) found themselves occupying the relegation spots in the prosperity top 20.

Read More>This Is Money

The Cult Polaroid Camera Will Live On

The last batch of Polaroid film passed its “use by” date on the 9 October this year. Polaroid stopped producing film for the iconic cameras after its collapse two years ago. The volatile chemicals in Polaroid film give it relatively short shelf-life and fans of the vintage instant prints were in uproar all over the world over the discontinuation.

As film stocks ran increasingly short, gadget fans have been bombarding the firm with enquiries. A lucrative market for vintage versions of the camera, and lots of film, developed on auction site eBay.

In response to the furious demand, two companies have stepped forward to champion the cult brand. The instant cameras will be now made in China by Summit Global.

Read More>Real Business