Second phase of the giant Clair field, west of the Shetland Islands, forms part of £10bn being spent on four projects by BP and its partners BP said the story of North Sea oil still has a “long way to run” after the company today received the go-ahead for a major £4.5bn project. The second phase of the giant Clair field, west of the Shetland Islands, forms part of £10bn being spent on four projects by BP and its partners from Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron over the next five years. At £4bn, BP’s involvement represents the highest level of annual investment the company has made in the UK North Sea. BP chief executive Bob Dudley said: “Although it began over 40 years ago, the story of the North Sea oil industry has a long way yet to run. “BP has produced some five billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent so far from the region and we believe we have the potential for over three bn more.” At their peak, it is expected that the projects will provide 3,000 UK oil and gas supply jobs and play a part in sustaining the more than 3,500 jobs already existing in BP’s North Sea operations. Prime minister David Cameron said the Clair Ridge project, which received the go-ahead from the government today, would provide “a massive boost for jobs and growth”. Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond said: “This massive new investment by BP and its partners is extremely welcome and confirms that the offshore industry has a key role to play in generating jobs, skills and revenue for decades to come. “With up to 40% of oil and gas reserves still to be extracted and well over half of the revenues still to be generated, the UK government needs to give more certainty to the industry and restore confidence that has been badly dented by the Treasury’s conduct this year. “As today’s announcement demonstrates, there is plenty of life left in the industry. Indeed, if it had not been for the Budget blow, it would be at the centre of an unprecedented boom in jobs and investment, not just in the west coast frontier area but in the marginal and brownfield places hardest hit by the tax hike. “Concern remains over lost jobs and investment in the more challenging and mature fields and David Cameron should take the opportunity of his visit to Aberdeen to promise that at long last there will be a substantive response to the Scottish government proposals sent to the Treasury in June, suggesting options to incentivise activity, particularly a rate-of-return allowance.” BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry Peak oil guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Second phase of the giant Clair field, west of the Shetland Islands, forms part of £10bn being spent on four projects by BP and its partners BP said the story of North Sea oil still has a “long way to run” after the company today received the go-ahead for a major £4.5bn project. The second phase of the giant Clair field, west of the Shetland Islands, forms part of £10bn being spent on four projects by BP and its partners from Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron over the next five years. At £4bn, BP’s involvement represents the highest level of annual investment the company has made in the UK North Sea. BP chief executive Bob Dudley said: “Although it began over 40 years ago, the story of the North Sea oil industry has a long way yet to run. “BP has produced some five billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent so far from the region and we believe we have the potential for over three bn more.” At their peak, it is expected that the projects will provide 3,000 UK oil and gas supply jobs and play a part in sustaining the more than 3,500 jobs already existing in BP’s North Sea operations. Prime minister David Cameron said the Clair Ridge project, which received the go-ahead from the government today, would provide “a massive boost for jobs and growth”. Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond said: “This massive new investment by BP and its partners is extremely welcome and confirms that the offshore industry has a key role to play in generating jobs, skills and revenue for decades to come. “With up to 40% of oil and gas reserves still to be extracted and well over half of the revenues still to be generated, the UK government needs to give more certainty to the industry and restore confidence that has been badly dented by the Treasury’s conduct this year. “As today’s announcement demonstrates, there is plenty of life left in the industry. Indeed, if it had not been for the Budget blow, it would be at the centre of an unprecedented boom in jobs and investment, not just in the west coast frontier area but in the marginal and brownfield places hardest hit by the tax hike. “Concern remains over lost jobs and investment in the more challenging and mature fields and David Cameron should take the opportunity of his visit to Aberdeen to promise that at long last there will be a substantive response to the Scottish government proposals sent to the Treasury in June, suggesting options to incentivise activity, particularly a rate-of-return allowance.” BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry Peak oil guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Second phase of the giant Clair field, west of the Shetland Islands, forms part of £10bn being spent on four projects by BP and its partners BP said the story of North Sea oil still has a “long way to run” after the company today received the go-ahead for a major £4.5bn project. The second phase of the giant Clair field, west of the Shetland Islands, forms part of £10bn being spent on four projects by BP and its partners from Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron over the next five years. At £4bn, BP’s involvement represents the highest level of annual investment the company has made in the UK North Sea. BP chief executive Bob Dudley said: “Although it began over 40 years ago, the story of the North Sea oil industry has a long way yet to run. “BP has produced some five billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent so far from the region and we believe we have the potential for over three bn more.” At their peak, it is expected that the projects will provide 3,000 UK oil and gas supply jobs and play a part in sustaining the more than 3,500 jobs already existing in BP’s North Sea operations. Prime minister David Cameron said the Clair Ridge project, which received the go-ahead from the government today, would provide “a massive boost for jobs and growth”. Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond said: “This massive new investment by BP and its partners is extremely welcome and confirms that the offshore industry has a key role to play in generating jobs, skills and revenue for decades to come. “With up to 40% of oil and gas reserves still to be extracted and well over half of the revenues still to be generated, the UK government needs to give more certainty to the industry and restore confidence that has been badly dented by the Treasury’s conduct this year. “As today’s announcement demonstrates, there is plenty of life left in the industry. Indeed, if it had not been for the Budget blow, it would be at the centre of an unprecedented boom in jobs and investment, not just in the west coast frontier area but in the marginal and brownfield places hardest hit by the tax hike. “Concern remains over lost jobs and investment in the more challenging and mature fields and David Cameron should take the opportunity of his visit to Aberdeen to promise that at long last there will be a substantive response to the Scottish government proposals sent to the Treasury in June, suggesting options to incentivise activity, particularly a rate-of-return allowance.” BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry Peak oil guardian.co.uk
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Fox says he is concentrating on defence issues amid fresh claims over the financial affairs of his friend Adam Werritty Liam Fox has insisted he is focusing on his job amid mounting questions over the financial affairs of his close friend and self-styled adviser, Adam Werritty. New claims that wealthy backers of Fox had funded Werritty’s work and travel appeared to “blow a hole” in the defence secretary’s position, Labour said. Werritty will be questioned for a second time by senior civil servants investigating his relationship with Fox either on Thursday or Friday. The defence secretary, who pulled out of a keel-laying ceremony for a new submarine in Barrow scheduled for Thursday, said he had been attending a meeting of the National Security Council. He said t he fall of the last pro-Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte was “getting very close” in Libya, potentially bringing the conflict to an end. “That is what I have to focus all my attention on,” he told reporters as he arrived at the Ministry of Defence. “I’m continuing to do what is needed at the moment which is that the defence secretary focuses on defence issues.” It has been reported that Werritty was being bankrolled by a number of wealthy private clients who shared his and Fox’s strong Atlanticist views. Werritty, whose links with the politician are being investigated by the UK’s leading civil servant, was remunerated for “political and strategic advice”, he said. The shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, said that if Werritty was being paid as an unofficial adviser – something denied by the Conservatives – it would constitute a “clear breach” of ministerial rules. Liam Fox Liam Fox and Adam Werritty links guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Fox says he is concentrating on defence issues amid fresh claims over the financial affairs of his friend Adam Werritty Liam Fox has insisted he is focusing on his job amid mounting questions over the financial affairs of his close friend and self-styled adviser, Adam Werritty. New claims that wealthy backers of Fox had funded Werritty’s work and travel appeared to “blow a hole” in the defence secretary’s position, Labour said. Werritty will be questioned for a second time by senior civil servants investigating his relationship with Fox either on Thursday or Friday. The defence secretary, who pulled out of a keel-laying ceremony for a new submarine in Barrow scheduled for Thursday, said he had been attending a meeting of the National Security Council. He said t he fall of the last pro-Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte was “getting very close” in Libya, potentially bringing the conflict to an end. “That is what I have to focus all my attention on,” he told reporters as he arrived at the Ministry of Defence. “I’m continuing to do what is needed at the moment which is that the defence secretary focuses on defence issues.” It has been reported that Werritty was being bankrolled by a number of wealthy private clients who shared his and Fox’s strong Atlanticist views. Werritty, whose links with the politician are being investigated by the UK’s leading civil servant, was remunerated for “political and strategic advice”, he said. The shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, said that if Werritty was being paid as an unofficial adviser – something denied by the Conservatives – it would constitute a “clear breach” of ministerial rules. Liam Fox Liam Fox and Adam Werritty links guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Fox says he is concentrating on defence issues amid fresh claims over the financial affairs of his friend Adam Werritty Liam Fox has insisted he is focusing on his job amid mounting questions over the financial affairs of his close friend and self-styled adviser, Adam Werritty. New claims that wealthy backers of Fox had funded Werritty’s work and travel appeared to “blow a hole” in the defence secretary’s position, Labour said. Werritty will be questioned for a second time by senior civil servants investigating his relationship with Fox either on Thursday or Friday. The defence secretary, who pulled out of a keel-laying ceremony for a new submarine in Barrow scheduled for Thursday, said he had been attending a meeting of the National Security Council. He said t he fall of the last pro-Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte was “getting very close” in Libya, potentially bringing the conflict to an end. “That is what I have to focus all my attention on,” he told reporters as he arrived at the Ministry of Defence. “I’m continuing to do what is needed at the moment which is that the defence secretary focuses on defence issues.” It has been reported that Werritty was being bankrolled by a number of wealthy private clients who shared his and Fox’s strong Atlanticist views. Werritty, whose links with the politician are being investigated by the UK’s leading civil servant, was remunerated for “political and strategic advice”, he said. The shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, said that if Werritty was being paid as an unofficial adviser – something denied by the Conservatives – it would constitute a “clear breach” of ministerial rules. Liam Fox Liam Fox and Adam Werritty links guardian.co.uk
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Care Quality Commission finds ‘truly appalling and shocking’ levels of dignity and provision of nutrition during spot visits Twenty hospitals in England broke the law by failing to protect the dignity of older patients and ensure they got sufficient food and water, spot checks by NHS watchdogs have found. Thirty-five others subject to unannounced visits between March and June this year also needed to make improvements, with just 45 of 100 involved satisfying the Care Quality Commission.Too often staff did not treat patients with kindness and compassion, according to its highly critical report . Amanda Sherlock, director of operations delivery at the commission, called the results “truly appalling and truly shocking”, saying there could be no excuses from the hospitals involved. “Care should not be a lottery. It should be consistently meeting essential standards,” she told the BBC’s Today programme . Health secretary Andrew Lansley put the “unacceptable” failings down to failings in nursing leadership and promised more spot inspections, which he said were a better weapon on ensuring standards than a “top-down target culture”. The minister, who had asked the commission to carry out the research, said poor care needed to be identified and stamped out. “Everyone admitted to hospital deserves to be treated as an individual, with compassion and dignity. We must never lose sight of the fact that the most important people in the NHS are its patients. The CQC saw some exemplary care, but some hospitals were not even getting the basics right. That is simply unacceptable.” In future the planned new local HealthWatch organisations should be able to carry out their own unannounced inspections, he suggested. Age UK’s charity director, Michelle Mitchell, said: “This shows shocking complacency on the part of those hospitals towards an essential part of good healthcare and there are no excuses.” At Sandwell general hospital in West Bromwich, inspectors witnessed an incontinent patient remaining unwashed for 90 minutes, despite requesting help. The hospital later shut the ward concerned and replaced it with two other specialist wards. John Adler, chief executive of the hospital trust responsible, said it had “many excellent wards and one or two not up to the required standards”. The behaviour of staff at Alexandra hospital in Redditch, Worcestershire, prompted inspectors to decide there were major concerns about its levels of care, though improvements were then made. The CQC identified moderate concerns about nutrition and dignity at James Paget university hospitals foundation trust in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. On a follow-up visit the commission found some patients were not receiving enough support with eating and drinking and that some who needed intravenous fluids were not getting it. The regulator warned the trust to make urgent improvements or risk being prosecuted or having restrictions put on its operating licence. In hospitals where essential standards were not being met, inspectors found patients’ call bells being put out of reach or not responded to quickly enough, staff talking to patients in a condescending or dismissive way, and patients not receiving help to eat or being interrupted and not finishing meals. Dame Jo Williams, the commission’s chair, said: “Too often our inspectors saw the delivery of care treated as a task that needed to be completed. Those responsible for the training and development of staff, particularly in nursing, need to look long and hard at why the focus has become the unit of work rather than the person who needs to be looked after – and how this can be changed. Task-focused care is not person-centred care. Often what is needed is kindness and compassion, which cost nothing.” The entire NHS needed to ensure that it made big improvements to end the scandal of poor care, she added. Poor leadership in NHS organisations had let “unacceptable care … become the norm”, while the attitude of some staff resulted in “too many cases where patients were treated by staff in a way that stripped them of their dignity and respect”, said the report. Inspectors also found unacceptable care on well-staffed wards and, equally, excellent care on understaffed ones. Age UK wants the commission to undertake more spot checks and for ministers to force hospitals to publish accessible information showing rates of malnutrition on their wards. The 20 worst offenders, according to the commission, were: Alexandra hospital, Worcestershire acute hospitals NHS trust Barnsley hospital, Barnsley hospital NHS foundation trust Bedford hospital, Bedford hospital NHS trust Colchester general hospital, Colchester hospital university NHS foundation trust Conquest hospital, East Sussex hospitals NHS trust Darent Valley hospital, Dartford and Gravesham NHS trust Eastbourne general hospital, East Sussex hospitals NHS trust Great Western hospital, Great Western hospitals NHS foundation trust Ipswich hospital, Ipswich hospital NHS trust James Paget hospital, James Paget university hospitals NHS foundation trust John Radcliffe hospital, Oxford Radcliffe hospitals NHS trust Norfolk and Norwich university hospital, Norfolk and Norwich university hospitals NHS foundation trust Ormskirk and district general hospital, Southport and Ormskirk hospital NHS trust Royal Preston hospital, Lancashire teaching hospitals NHS foundation trust Royal Free Hampstead hospital, Royal Free Hampstead NHS trust Sandwell general hospital, Sandwell and West Birmingham hospitals NHS trust South Tyneside district hospital, South Tyneside NHS foundation trust Stepping Hill hospital, Stockport NHS foundation trust University Hospitals Bristol site, University Hospitals Bristol NHS foundation trust Whiston hospital, St Helen’s and Knowsley NHS trust NHS Health policy Public services policy Nursing Older people Denis Campbell James Meikle guardian.co.uk
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Missiles kill three militants in North Waziristan – home to Haqqani network which US claims is main threat in Afghanistan An American missile strike has killed a member of the militant Haqqani network in northwestern Pakistan, striking at a group that Washington claims is the number one threat in Afghanistan and is supported by Pakistani security forces, local intelligence officials said. Two other militants were killed in the attack on Thursday close to the Haqqani stronghold of North Waziristan, the group’s main sanctuary along the Afghan border, said the Pakistani officials in the region. They identified the Haqqani member as Jalil and said he was a “co-ordinator” for the group. The men were walking down a street when the drone-fired missile hit. One official said Jalil was related to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the network. The missiles hit close to Dande Darpa Khel village, which is home to a large seminary with links to the Haqqanis. The al-Qaida-allied Haqqani network is one of most organised insurgent factions fighting the US presence in Afghanistan, and it has been blamed for assaults against western and Afghan targets in Kabul. Washington has long urged Islamabad to attack the fighters, who live undisturbed in North Waziristan despite the region being home to several thousand Pakistani troops. At the same time, the US is pursuing the possibility of peace talks with the Haqqanis and other Taliban factions, reflecting the fact that the insurgency cannot be defeated militarily. The attack took place hours before US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, arrived in Pakistan for talks with the country’s prime minister and army chief. Grossman, whose mission is to promote the peace process, will likely discuss US concerns about the Haqqani network. Last month, senior American officials accused Pakistan’s spy agency of assisting the Haqqani network in attacks on Western targets in Afghanistan, including a strike last month on the US embassy in Kabul. Pakistani officials have denied the charges. They were the most serious allegations yet of Pakistani duplicity in the 10-year war in Afghanistan and have further strained ties between Islamabad and Washington. Obama administration officials have since backtracked on the claims. Most independent analysts say Pakistan is either tolerating or supporting the Haqqani network to some degree because it foresees chaos in Afghanistan once America withdraws, and wants to cultivate the group as an ally there against the influence of India, its regional enemy. Since 2008, the US has regularly unleashed unmanned drone-fired missiles against militants in the border region, which is home to Pakistani militants, Afghan factions like the Haqqanis and al-Qaida operatives from around the world, especially the Middle East. This year, there have been around 50 drone strikes, most of them in North Waziristan. US officials do not acknowledge the CIA-led programme publicly. Pakistani officials protest the strikes, which are unpopular among many Pakistanis, but the country is believed to support them privately and makes no diplomatic or military efforts to stop them. US leverage against Pakistan to get it to fight the Haqqani group is limited because it relies on the country to truck much of its war supplies into Afghanistan. The supplies of non-lethal material arrive in Pakistan’s port of Karachi by sea before traveling into Afghanistan by land. The convoys are occasionally attacked by insurgents, especiallty close to the border, where the militants are strongest. On Thursday, gunmen opened fire and set ablaze five tankers carrying oil for Nato and US troops in Sindh province, some 1,200 miles (2,000km) from the border, said police officer Khair Mohammad Samejho. The tankers were parked outside a restaurant in Shikarpur district when they were attacked, he said. Pakistan United States Afghanistan guardian.co.uk
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• Editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger introduces the new Guardian iPad app • A free trial is now available from the App Store For those of you addicted to print, the Guardian just got smaller. For those of you wedded to reading the paper on your mobile phone it just got bigger. Welcome to the Guardian iPad edition. Size matters. Some Guardian readers want to be able to spread the paper across the breakfast table and browse it. Others, crammed like sardines into a commuter train or bus, need to be able to read the “paper” on a very small screen. More than 15 million people worldwide now own an iPad, and a good proportion of them want something that not just fits their screen, but has been designed with it in mind. Step forward Mark Porter, the designer of the Berliner-format Guardian newspaper and considered by many of his peers to be the most thoughtful and elegant news designer in the business. He led an in-house team of digital and print designers and developers who worked out how to transform the appearance and ordering of a newspaper so that it made sense on this revolutionary device. The quick and easy answer would have been to do something that looked like a pdf file of the newspaper. Mark wasn’t having that. He wanted to create something that had the “feel” of a newspaper – legibility, browseabilty, a sense of hierarchy – with the tactile functionality of the iPad. The result is something that defies easy pigeon-holing. It is, much more than the browser version of the Guardian, a digital newspaper. The design is clean, modern, luminous, fresh and immensely readable. The navigation is intriguingly simple. Each section (national news, international, comment, sport etc) can be scanned in two swipes – up or across. So there’s never that feeling of losing your way that can mar some iPad conversions from print. Our first iPad app – the Eyewitness app – was launched on the day the first iPad was born in April 2010, and was immediately acclaimed by Steve Jobs in one word: “cool”. This Guardian iPad edition is launched to coincide with Apple’s Newsstand. One feature of this is that the Guardian will automatically download on to your device while you sleep. Simply grab your iPad as you leave the house and you will find the Guardian waiting for you. (Some of you are still lucky enough to have old-fashioned newsagents who do this. The Guardian iPad edition will not wake the dog as the paper snaps through the letter box. Nor will you have to stand for an eternity by your front door waiting for a creakingly slow download. No names, but you know who you are). The app will not please everyone. We’ve consciously set out, with this version, to deliver the Guardian newspaper edition, something that will work for some of our most loyal and passionate readers. It’s a reflective once-a-day Guardian, designed and edited for iPad. The Guardian is many other things. You can now watch, listen to and join in with the Guardian. You can literally follow it minute by minute around the clock as it reports, mirrors, analyses and gives context to the shifting patterns and rhythms of the world’s news. It’s Android when it wants to be, Kindle when it chooses. Other Guardian tablet apps will do different things. But I know many of you will love this particular incarnation of the Guardian – just one step on a long road that first saw the paper printed on one gigantic, folded sheet of newsprint in 1821. The pricing is extremely competitive – £9.99 a month. And, if you are a six- or seven-day subscriber for the paper, you can get it completely free. I hope you’ll get the free trial and that, for many, it becomes second nature to read the paper in this latest format. Do let us know what you make of it and how we can improve it … And happy reading. iPad The Guardian Apps Apple Guardian iPad edition Digital media Alan Rusbridger guardian.co.uk
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Michael Lewis, who donated almost £14,000 to Fox’s Atlantic Bridge charity, paid for airline tickets for five newly elected Tory MPs in 2005 A major donor to Liam Fox’s controversial charity paid for the defence secretary to take five freshly elected MPs on a first-class trip to Washington. Three of the MPs joined Fox on the flight from London to Washington on October 18 2005, the same day as the first round of voting in the leadership election, which Fox subsequently lost to David Cameron. The other two MPs joined the trip on different dates. It is thought that Fox’s long-term travel companion Adam Werritty was also on the trip, but this could not be confirmed. Fox and Werritty did not respond to requests to comment. The Tory MPs – Mark Harper, member for the Forest of Dean; John Penrose, Weston-super-Mare; Brooks Newmark, Braintree; Adam Holloway, Gravesham; and Philip Dunne, Ludlow – had only months earlier been elected to parliament. All of the MPs declared in the register of members’ interests that their flights and hotel bills were paid for by Michael Lewis, who has donated £13,832 to Fox’s Atlantic Bridge charity, which was shut down last month after regulators found it was primarily promoting Tory ideals. “18-21 September 2005, to USA. Travel and accommodation costs met by Dr Liam Fox’s office from a donation by Mr Michael Lewis, a businessman from London. I received flight upgrades on outward and return journeys from London to Washington from Virgin Atlantic,” Harper registered on 17 October 2005. The other MPs’ registers include similar entries, although some dates differ. Electoral Commission records show Lewis, who is deputy chairman of the Israeli lobby group Bicom, donated £5,000 to Fox’s leadership campaign on 27 July 2005. Bicom paid for Werritty’s flight and hotel bill to attend a conference in Israel in 2009 where he was asked to join a panel and talk about Iran. The Herzliya conference was one of the events listed by the Ministry of Defence at which he met Fox. Kevan Jones, Labour’s defence spokesman, said: “This is yet another question Liam Fox needs to answer. Why during his campaign to be Tory party leader, did Dr Fox’s office fund a visit to the United States for new Tory MPs from a donation by businessman Michael Lewis? The only declaration of money to Liam Fox from Mr Lewis is in regards to his leadership campaign. Did he use this money donated to his campaign to fund these visits?” Liam Fox and Adam Werritty links Liam Fox Rupert Neate guardian.co.uk
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