Record British offshore energy investment

BRITAIN'S offshore oil and gas sector will invest a record STG13 billion ($A19 billion) in 2013, boosted by the impact of taxation changes in the previous year, an industry survey shows.

Overall investment is expected to surge by 14 per cent this year, compared with STG11.4 billion in 2012, industry body Oil & Gas UK said in a statement detailing its latest activity survey. Last year's figure had already been a 30-year high.

"Here is some really good news for the UK," said Oil & Gas UK chief executive Malcolm Webb.

"After two disappointing years brought about by tax uncertainty and consequent low investment, the UK continental shelf (UKCS) is now benefitting from record investment in new developments and in existing assets and infrastructure, the strongest for more than three decades."

He added that last year's changes in the taxation regime, which were aimed at promoting the development of a range of difficult energy projects, had prompted many companies to reassess their plans and sparked a new wave of investment.

Oil & Gas UK, which represents more than 300 firms, added that output was forecast to surge over the next three to four years thanks to the recent surge in investment.

Production was expected to jump to approximately 2.0 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2017, it said.

However, the industry body noted production sank to 1.55 million boepd in 2012. That was 14 per cent lower than 2011 and 30 per cent lower than 2010.

And output was forecast to decline in the current year to 1.45-1.5 million boepd.

"Recent collaborative work between government and industry is now bearing fruit in terms of investment and job creation right across Britain and recovery in production and tax revenues will certainly follow," added Webb in the statement.

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Italy's centre-left poised to win election

ITALY'S centre-left is poised to win against Silvio Berlusconi in a key election for the eurozone, but a new anti-austerity party is also set to make major gains, exit polls show.

The main Democratic Party led by Pier Luigi Bersani and its smaller leftist allies are ahead with between 34.5 and 37 per cent, beating the 29 to 31 per cent for a coalition led by the scandal-tainted former prime minister Berlusconi.

A projection by the SkyTG24 news channel said the left would manage to win a majority in both chambers of parliament, following fears it would fail to snag a majority in the upper house Senate.

The newcomer Five Star Movement led by former-comedian-turned-activist Beppe Grillo, who has channelled growing disenchantment with traditional politicians and rising social discontent, was given around 20 per cent in the exit polls.

European capitals and the financial markets have been concerned that no clear winner would emerge and stocks in Milan jumped by more than 3.5 per cent immediately after the exit polls were released on Monday.

A lacklustre turnout however reflected widespread frustration among voters fed up with austerity cuts and a grinding recession.

In the first day of voting on Sunday, turnout was 55 per cent - seven percentage points lower than at the same time in the last elections in 2008.

Outgoing prime minister Mario Monti was slated for fourth place, according to the exit polls, with only around 10 per cent of the vote.

The wild card in the election has been Grillo, who has called for Italy's debts to be cancelled and for a referendum on whether to stay in the euro.

Critics have said his party's candidates are too inexperienced, while supporters say they could bring a much-needed breath of fresh air.

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Silencer plan for NSW park hunting

HUNTERS will be allowed to use silencers on guns when shooting feral animals in NSW national parks to minimise disturbance to other users under proposals being considered by the government.

The proposal in a leaked draft assessment report would require loosening the state's prohibition on silencers, a ban designed to stop them falling into criminal hands, Fairfax newspapers reported on Tuesday.

But Police Minister Mike Gallacher, who was not consulted about the plan, says he does not want existing restrictions to change.

The Game Council of NSW has been pushing for hunters to be allowed to use silencers.

But National Parks Association of NSW campaign co-ordinator Justin McKee said silencers were a safety risk as they removed people's awareness that hunting was taking place nearby, Fairfax reported.

Environment Minister Robyn Parker is overseeing preparation of the risk assessment before declaring 77 national parks and reserves open for amateur hunting of feral animals from May.

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World powers have 'good offer' for Iran

WORLD powers will present Iran with an updated and "good" offer at talks this week on its nuclear program, an EU official says, although hopes for a breakthrough are slim.

Talks aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear drive start in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, with the so-called 5+1 world powers represented by the European Union sitting down with an Iranian team led by its top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

"We have prepared a good and updated offer for the talks, which we believe is balanced and a fair basis for constructive talks," said the spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

"The offer addresses international concerns ... on the nature of the Iranian nuclear program, but is also responsive to Iranian ideas," said the spokesman, Michael Mann.

"We hope that Iran will seize this opportunity and come to the talks with flexibility and commitment to make concrete progress towards a confidence-building step."

A source close to the negotiations said the offer would still insist that Iran halts enriching uranium to 20 per cent, shuts down its controversial Fordo uranium enrichment plant and sends abroad all uranium already enriched to 20 per cent.

"This still forms the basis of the demands of the 5+1 group," said the source who asked not to be identified.

Another Western source said the powers could discuss lifting sanctions on Iran in exchange for specific concessions, although the source provided no further details.

Earlier reports said the powers could consider easing sanctions on Iran's gold and precious metals trade.

Jalili said at the weekend Tehran would not go beyond its obligations or accept anything outside its rights under the non-proliferation treaty.

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Fiennes pulls out of Antarctic expedition

BRITISH explorer Ranulph Fiennes has pulled out of the expedition to cross Antarctica during the region's winter after developing a severe case of frostbite.

The 68-year-old and his five-member team had hoped to conquer what has been called one of the last great polar challenges - traversing nearly 4000km in a place where temperatures often dip as low as minus 70C.

The expedition, dubbed The Coldest Journey, said in a statement on Monday the team is working toward evacuating Fiennes from Antarctica, but the evacuation is being hampered by a blizzard.

The rest of the team plans to continue on.

Expedition organisers are trying to raise $US10 million ($A9.75 million) for the charity Seeing is Believing, which seeks to prevent blindness.

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Sinopec buys shale stake from Chesapeake

CHINESE oil giant Sinopec is investing $US1.02 billion ($A995 million) in a US shale field as it teams up with Chesapeake Energy Corp in a 50-50 joint venture, the companies say.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) will buy a 50 per cent interest in Chesapeake's 340,000 hectares in Mississippi Lime shale in northern Oklahoma, they said in a joint statement.

The two companies will share the costs of all future exploration and development, while Chesapeake will be in charge of leasing, drilling and operations and marketing activities.

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, the second-largest producer of natural gas in the United States, has been shedding assets to pare down massive debt.

The Mississippi Lime joint venture with Sinopec "moves us further along in achieving our asset sales goals and secures an excellent partner to share the capital costs required to actively develop this very large, liquids-rich resource play", said Steven Dixon, Chesapeake's chief operating officer.

Chesapeake produced on average 34,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the Mississippi Lime assets in the 2012 fourth quarter, and at the end of last year proven reserves were estimated at 140 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The transaction was expected to be completed in the 2013 second quarter.

Analyst Paul Ausick of 24/7WallStreet.com noted that Chesapeake already had sold more than $US3 billion in assets to China's energy giant CNOOC.

"The interesting thing that could develop from this is a sale of a US producer - not necessarily Chesapeake, of course - as a result of the recently approved $US15 billion acquisition of Nexen Inc by CNOOC," he said.

"The US approved the sale of the Canadian-based firm and may have opened the door for more aggressive bidding by China's big state-backed oil firms."

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BP spill trial opens with scathing attack

THE blockbuster BP oil spill trial has opened with a scathing attack on the poor safety standards that led to the worst environmental disaster in US history.

Billions are at stake in the New Orleans courtroom where a federal judge is tasked with determining how much BP and its subcontractors should pay for the devastating Gulf of Mexico spill.

US prosecutors are determined to prove that gross negligence caused the April 20, 2010 blast that killed 11 workers and sank the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, sending millions of barrels of oil gushing into the sea.

BP is equally determined to avoid a finding of gross negligence, which would drastically increase its environmental fines to as much as $US17 billion ($A16.5 billion).

BP is also hoping to shift much of the blame - and cost - to rig operator Transocean and subcontractor Halliburton, which was responsible for the runaway well's faulty cement job.

Transocean's poor safety record was the focus of the first lawyer to speak, Jim Roy of the plaintiffs steering committee, which represents thousands of individuals and business impacted by the spill.

Roy told the court the Swiss giant's top safety official on the multimillion-dollar rig "was not even minimally competent for this job".

"His training consisted of a three-day course. Amazingly, he had never been aboard the Deepwater Horizon," Roy said, noting the blowout was the seventh major incident aboard a Transocean rig in the space of 17 months.

It took 87 days to cap BP's runaway well, which blackened beaches in five states and crippled the region's tourism and fishing industries in a tragedy that riveted the nation.

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