BP Plc presents the West with a dilemma over Iranian partners in Caspian Sea project |
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| Economy | |
| Written by Roberta Murray | |
| Tuesday, 24 January 2012 | |
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Financial News Roundup: BP plc, Conservatives vs Labour, shareholders power over pay, Buffet's pledge, Scottish electricity for England.
BP Plc (LON:BP) and its partners on a Caspian Sea project could be exempt from new US sanctions aimed at Iran. The $20bn project sees BP team up with the Iranian state-owned oil company, Naftiran Intertrade, who own 10% of the project. The involvement of the Iranian's in the consortium will put the project within reach of proposed new sanctions aimed at preventing Western companies from doing business with Iran’s energy sector. The project underlines the difficulties Western governments are facing as they try to isolate Tehran without harming their own energy security, The Times says. Conservatives forge lead over LabourThe Conservatives have forged a five-point lead over Labour, according to the latest Guardian/ICM poll, suggesting David Cameron would stand on the verge of an outright majority if an election were held now. The Tories are on 40%, up three percentage points from December, while Labour has drifted down one to 35%. The Liberal Democrats are on 16%, up one. The Tories' standing is their highest since before the general election inthe Guardian/ICM series – they last stood at 40% in March 2010. Their lead is the biggest since the eight-point edge they enjoyed in June 2010, a few weeks after Cameron moved into Downing Street. Shareholder power over payChief executives’ pay awards should be set partly according to how much they pay their rank-and-file staff under new government rules proposed yesterday. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said that shareholders would get new powers to enforce executives’ pay deals, and that they would be told to take account of “pay differentials” between the best-paid and ordinary workers. Independent analysts said the changes would leave Britain with the toughest rules on executive pay in the world. Conservative MPs described Mr Cable’s statement as “claptrap” that would harm the economy, The Telegraph reports. Buffet has pledged to donate a chunk of his riches to pay down the US national debtBillionaire investor Warren Buffet has pledged to donate a chunk of his riches to pay down the US national debt – provided that a minority of its politicians do the same. Buffett said he would donate 15% of his income to the government, provided that 10% of Congress agreed to do so too. The comments from Mr Buffett, the 81-year-old chairman and chief executive officer of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, mark the latest step in his campaign for America's rich to pay more taxes to help close its trillion-dollar budget deficit. "If you can get a significant percentage of Congress to do that, I would do it," he said. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Buffett said people who are making millions of dollars should be moved up to the "mid 30s" in terms of the percentage of their income they pay in tax, as most Americans do, The Telegraph writes. Scottish electricity grid to connect to EnglandA £7bn plan to rewire the Scottish electricity grid so that power from its wind farms can be transmitted to England has been approved. ScottishPower and Scottish and Southern Energy will upgrade hundreds of kilometres of lines over the next ten years, creating more than 1,500 jobs. Ofgem is keen that the work be carried out and has taken the unusual step of speeding up the consultation process, but the plan, to be funded by consumers, is likely to meet resistance north of the Border because of fears that it will lead to more pylons, according to The Times.
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