PERFECT MARKET TIME: 05/01/2010

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Nuclear: Iran and EU talks

Iran is willing to hold talks with the European Union's foreign policy chief over its disputed nuclear activities, a senior official said on Tuesday, after the bloc's top diplomat spoke of new sanctions against Tehran.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Monday extra sanctions could be adopted quickly, but that the EU was open to more talks with Iran if it showed it really wanted them.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran was ready for talks with Ashton, adding that "a time and venue for such a meeting had not been set yet."

"(Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed) Jalili and Ashton could meet in Turkey," Mehmanparast told a weekly news conference. "We do not see a problem with that."

Ashton told reporters in London that she had had a meeting on Monday with Ahmet Davutoglu, the foreign minister of Turkey, which has sought to mediate in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

"The message I've sent back is that I am perfectly prepared to meet and talk with Jalili," she said.

Iran's nuclear weapons capability should be the only issue on the agenda for talks, she said. Ashton would represent the six world powers dealing with Iran over its nuclear program.

"The location can be determined. I'm not worried about that. Wherever it seems most appropriate. If Turkey wishes to host ... that's fine," Ashton said.

However, she understood messages had been sent back by Iran saying "we're not sure what she wants to talk about."

MID-JUNE TARGET

Western diplomats have said mid-June is a target deadline for getting a fourth round of U.N. sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program, which it says is to generate electricity and not build bombs as the West fears.

Iran has welcomed Turkish and Brazilian mediation efforts to resolve the nuclear dispute, aimed at reviving a stalled fuel deal with major powers.

The deal is seen as a way to remove much of Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) stockpile to minimize the risk of this being used for atomic bombs, providing Iran with specially processed fuel to keep its research reactor running.

The deal broke down over Iran's insistence on doing the swap only on its territory, rather than shipping its LEU abroad in advance, and in smaller, phased amounts, meaning no significant cut in a stockpile which grows day by day.

Turkey and Brazil, both non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, are opposed to further sanctions against Iran.

But Mehmanparast said Iran had no intention to change its view over the venue for a fuel swap.

"We are ready to resolve the (nuclear) issue through talks ... New formulas have been raised about the exchange of fuel in our talks with Turkey and Brazil," Mehmanparast said.

"The new formula does not cover the venue of fuel exchange. We have always said the swap should take place inside Iran."

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will travel to Iran on May 16, Mehmanparast said.

"They will discuss the nuclear issue and the nuclear fuel deal with Iranian authorities."

UK's New Prime Minister David Cameron

Britain's first coalition government since 1945 will set out its main policy goals on Wednesday with a core task being to tackle the country's record budget deficit.

New Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives and the smaller Liberal Democrats struck a coalition agreement early on Wednesday in a deal between two usually ideologically opposed parties that critics say will lead to future instability.

"This is going to be hard and difficult work. A coalition will throw up all sorts of challenges. But I believe together we can provide that strong and stable government that our country needs," Cameron said in his first speech as prime minister.

The agreement, reached five days after an inconclusive election, ended 13 years of rule by the center-left Labour Party under Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown.

The partnership will have to tackle a record budget deficit running at more than 11 percent of GDP. The coalition is expected to implement Conservative plans to cut six billion pounds of spending this financial year, earlier than the Liberal Democrats, or Lib Dems, had campaigned for.

"What it (the joint agreement) does ... I think is properly balance the need to take some fairly aggressive action to control the budget deficit ... but also to make sure that economic recovery is protected," said Lib Dem politician David Laws, one of the key negotiators during the coalition talks.

The Liberal Democrats were celebrating after decades spent in the shadow of Labour and the Conservatives.

"There will of course be problems, there will of course be glitches. But I will always do my best to prove new politics isn't just possible, it is also better," Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who will be deputy prime minister, told reporters.

Markets welcomed the agreement, hopeful that a government led by the center-right Conservatives will take swift action to cut the country's debts.

Though critics suggest the coalition will be unstable, others pointed to successful coalition deals elsewhere.

"At the local level these sort of arrangements ... have been going on for some time and seem to work very well. I don't see why it wouldn't work on a larger scale," said Sir Moir Lockhead, Chief Executive of British transport operator FirstGroup.

PROBLEMS AHEAD?

Cameron, a 43-year-old former public relations executive, took over as prime minister on Thursday evening after Brown admitted defeat in efforts to broker a deal with the Lib Dems.

He is Britain's youngest prime minister in almost 200 years.

The Liberal Democrats have more in common with Labour in policy terms, but talks to form what the media called a "coalition of losers" swiftly fell apart.

Conservative politicians took to the airwaves on Wednesday morning to highlight their new good ties with the Lib Dems.

"We formed an excellent working relationship between the parties ... I think we will conduct government in that way as well," said William Hague, a former Conservative leader who will be the new foreign minister.

The Conservatives are the largest party in parliament after last week's election but fell 20 seats short of an outright majority. Combined with the Liberal Democrats, they will have a majority of 76 seats.

The prime minister's office said late on Tuesday there would be five Liberal Democrats in cabinet in total, including Clegg.

It did not name the other four ministers but there were reports Vince Cable, the well regarded Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, would have a role overseeing banking and business.

George Osborne, a close friend and ally of Cameron, will become the new Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister).

Some in the finance industry have expressed doubts about Osborne because he is untested and takes over an economy emerging from the worst recession since World War Two.

Media reports said Liam Fox would be defense secretary.

BP Oil spill: what happened in the gulf of Mexico

A drilling rig explosion on April 20 left 11 workers missing and presumed dead, and the rig's subsequent collapse unleashed a major oil spill that threatens the ecosystems and economy of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Also threatened is the heart of U.S. energy production, as a giant, unprecedented underwater leak spreads oil across the northern Gulf of Mexico, threatening areas from Florida to points west of the of the Mississippi River.

President Barack Obama's plans to widen offshore drilling have been suspended, and energy giant BP Plc faces another blow to its reputation and a multibillion-dollar bill for cleaning up the mess and paying damages.

Below is a chronology of the spill and its impact:

* April 20, 2010 - Explosion and fire on Transocean Ltd's drilling rig Deepwater Horizon licensed to BP; 11 workers missing, 17 injured. The rig was drilling in BP's Macondo project 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, beneath about 5,000 feet of water and 13,000 feet under the seabed. A blowout preventer, intended to prevent release of crude oil, failed to activate.

* April 22 - The Deepwater Horizon rig, valued at more than $560 million, sinks and a five-mile long oil slick is seen.

* April 23 - The U.S. Coast Guard suspends search for missing workers.

* April 25 - The Coast Guard says remote underwater cameras detect the well is leaking 1,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The agency calls the leak a "very serious spill" that threatens ecosystems along the Gulf Coast. It approves a plan to have remote underwater vehicles activate a blowout preventer and stop leak, but the effort fails.

* April 26 - BP's shares fall 2 percent on fears the cost of cleanup and legal claims will deal the London-based energy giant a heavy financial blow.

* April 27 - U.S. departments of Interior and Homeland Security announce joint investigation. Coast Guard says leaking crude may be set ablaze to slow the spread of oil in the Gulf.

* April 28 - The Coast Guard says the flow of oil is 5,000 barrels per day (bpd) (210,000 gallons/795,000 liters) -- five times greater than first estimated. A controlled burn is held on the giant oil slick.

* April 29 - Obama pledges "every single available resource," including the U.S. military, to contain the spill, which Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says is of "national significance." Obama also says BP is responsible for the cleanup. Louisiana declares state of emergency due to the threat to the state's natural resources.

* April 30 - An Obama aide says no drilling will be allowed in new areas, as the president had recently proposed, until the cause of the Deepwater Horizon accident is known.

* BP Chairman Tony Hayward says the company takes full responsibility and will pay all legitimate claims and the cost of the cleanup. The Interior Department orders safety inspections of all 30 deepwater drilling rigs and 47 deepwater production platforms.

* May 1 - Coast Guard says leak will affect the Gulf shore.

* May 2 - Obama visits the Gulf Coast to see cleanup efforts first hand. U.S. officials close areas affected by the spill to fishing for an initial period of 10 days. BP starts to drill a relief well alongside the failed well, a process that could take two to three months to complete.

* May 5 - A barge begins towing a 98-ton containment chamber to the site of the leak. BP says one of the three leaks has been shut off by capping a valve, but that would not cut the amount of oil gushing out.

* May 6 - Oil washes ashore on the Chandeleur Islands off the Louisiana coast, uninhabited barrier islands that are part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge and important nesting and breeding areas for many bird species.

* May 7 - BP engineers use undersea robots to move the containment chamber over the larger of the two remaining leaks on the seabed. A fishing ban for federal waters off the Gulf is modified, expanded and extended to May 17.

* May 8 - BP's containment dome hits a snag when a buildup of crystallized gas forces engineers to postpone efforts to place the chamber over the oil leak and siphon oil to the surface. "Tar balls" suspected to come from the leak wash up along a half-mile stretch of Dauphin Island, Alabama.

* May 9 - BP says it might try to plug the undersea leak by pumping materials such as shredded up tires and golf balls into the well at high pressure, a method called a "junk shot."

* May 10 - Forecasts suggest the oil spill could move significantly west of the Mississippi River delta as brisk onshore winds prevail. BP announces plans to place a small containment dome, known as a "top hat," over the blown out well to funnel oil to the surface.

* May 11 - Executives with BP, Transocean and Halliburton appear at congressional hearings in Washington, where Senators criticize their safety records. The executives blame each other's companies for the explosion. The oil slick washes ashore on a third land mass: Louisiana's Port Eads area, on the southern edge of the Mississippi Delta.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

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