LIVE

BUSINESS LIVE: Equinor given green light for Rosebank oil and gas field

By Live Commentary

Updated: 03:25 EDT, 27 September 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

EnQuest shares plunge after oil and gas producer falls to loss

• London-listed firm reported a $21.2m loss for the six months ending June 
• It said the result was driven by a $76m charge related to the Energy Profits Levy 
• Declining production levels, and oil and gas prices hit the company’s turnover

By Harry Wise

Updated: 10:12 EDT, 5 September 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

It is 20 years since my father died prematurely from heart disease, and it still makes me sad to think that his premature death meant that he never got to see his grandchildren grow up.

He passed away aged 74, which these days feels quite young.

His is not an isolated tragedy; every year, more than 66,000 Britons have their lives cut short by heart disease — and most of them are men.

A new study by Aberdeen University found men not only have a 42 per cent higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than women, but also tend to have first heart attacks much younger.

Men are more likely to smoke, have untreated hypertension (high blood pressure) and are generally not as good at looking after their hearts.

Meanwhile women, at least up to the menopause, are protected by their hormones, particularly oestrogen.

According to the British Heart Foundation, even when women do develop fatty plaques in the arteries supplying blood to their hearts, it tends to be in more minor vessels, so less likely to lead to a fatal heart attack.

That said, because heart attacks are less common in women, they often get missed. Research suggests that women are 50 per cent more likely to receive a wrong initial diagnosis when having a heart attack (partly because their symptoms can differ too).

But if like me you know you are at higher risk of heart disease and a heart attack because of a family history, there are ways to reduce it.

A s regular readers of this column will know, I am a huge fan of the traditional Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, nuts and oily fish, with lots of fruit and veg.

Following this diet for more than ten years has helped me keep weight off and my blood pressure and blood sugar levels within a healthy range. And large trials show eating more of these sorts of food can cut your risk of heart disease, stroke and developing type 2 diabetes by almost half.

But it is not as simple as adding a bit more olive oil or oily fish to your life. While these foods are anti-inflammatory (and chronic inflammation helps drive heart disease), there is so much more to benefit from when looking at the Mediterranean lifestyle.

In fact, it is the traditional Mediterranean lifestyle and not just the food that’s protective and beneficial. So much so that scientists in Spain have now created something called the Mediterranean Lifestyle Index (or MEDLIFE) which takes into account other aspects of the Mediterranean lifestyle that are useful, including activity levels and socialising with friends.

Using the MEDLIFE, you score ‘points’ not just for consuming more olive oil, but also for socialising for at least a couple of hours at the weekend and spending less than one hour a day watching TV, for instance.

And you don’t have to live in the Mediterranean to get these benefits. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health recently examined the lifestyles of more than 110,000 middle-aged Britons, using data from UK Biobank (which collects in-depth health and genetic data on half a million volunteers). The participants were scored using the MEDLIFE index and monitored for an average of nine years.

Those with a higher MEDLIFE score not only had a lower risk of heart disease, but a 29 per cent lower risk of getting cancer and of dying prematurely.

Interestingly, the factors which predicted the lowest risk of death from heart disease were being physically active and sociable. That’s possibly because exercise and socialising are both good ways to reduce stress, which is known to increase the risk of heart disease.

But how do you know if you are at increased risk of a heart attack?

One helpful tool is the online Qrisk calculator used by GPs. Here you enter details such as your age, gender, height and weight, and (if you know them) your cholesterol and blood pressure.

When I did this, it told me that I had the heart age of 60 (I’m 66) and that my chance of having a heart attack in the next ten years is 9 per cent (the average for a healthy person of the same age, sex and ethnicity is 13 per cent). But genetics also play an important part. My dad had a heart attack in his 50s and when I ticked that box on the Qrisk calculator, my heart age jumped to 66 and my risk of a heart attack in the next ten years jumped to over 12 per cent.

If your Qrisk is over 10 per cent, the NHS recommends you see your GP and might need to be prescribed statins.

There are more personalised ways to identify heart risk, including a cardiac CT scan, which I tried myself a few years ago for a TV documentary. This revealed plaque (clumps of cholesterol) in my main coronary arteries and the cardiologist recommended I start on statins, to stabilise the clumps and minimise the risk of them breaking off and causing a heart attack.

I did just that — while sticking to my Mediterranean lifestyle rules — and a recent repeat scan shows the plaque seems to have shrunk.

These scans are available on the NHS (typically they’re offered to people with existing heart problems or a strong family history of heart disease — privately it can cost £1,000 plus).

As prevention is always better than cure, why not adopt a more laid-back Mediterranean lifestyle to protect your heart?

Pour olive oil on your veg, snack on nuts, go for a stroll with friends — and have the occasional nap. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

Banana ‘saboteur’ in your smoothie 

There are certain types of fruit – apples, pears, blueberries and black­berries – that are packed with flavanols, powerful plant compounds that have a range of benefits, including protecting cells from damage that could lead to cancer.

Then there are bananas, Britain’s most popular fruit, which are rich in fibre and vitamins.

You might think combining both in a smoothie will give you a big hit of health benefits. In fact it won’t, according to new research by Reading University.

Volunteers drank a smoothie made of mixed berries, or one with added banana.

Blood and urine samples revealed that those who had the banana smoothie had 84 per cent lower levels of flavanols in their body. The researchers think this is because bananas have high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, which seems to break down flavanols.

Do wrinkly rats hold key to long life?

Naked mole rats are weird-looking creatures and they fascinate scientists because they can live for more than 40 years – nearly ten times longer than similar-sized rodents – without developing diseases such as dementia, heart disease or arthritis.

Now it seems the key to their good health and longevity could be their naturally high levels of hyaluronic acid (a compound that’s also found in our skin and in fluid around our joints, which helps keep them lubricated). 

In high concentrations hyaluronic acid also has a powerful anti-inflammatory action. U.S. researchers successfully transferred the gene responsible for producing hyaluronic acid from naked mole rats to mice, and found the mice lived longer, healthier lives, reported the journal Nature.

Further studies are on the way, including a human trial using a drug that prevents the breakdown in the body of hyaluronic acid

MARKET REPORT: FTSE ends its two-day losing streak as oil stocks rally on the back of higher Brent Crude prices

By John Abiona

Published: 17:09 EDT, 9 August 2023 | Updated: 17:09 EDT, 9 August 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

Just Stop Oil protesters ‘are hatching plot to cause chaos at Wimbledon’, with group planning to ‘glue themselves to Centre Court’ during match

• A new report suggests Just Stop Oil protestors could target Wimbledon
• The group have already made a stand at other sporting events across the UK 
• One protestor suggested the imagery could top that from The Crucible 

By Samuel Draper For Mailonline

Published: 20:01 EDT, 18 June 2023 | Updated: 03:17 EDT, 19 June 2023

Russia has suffered a major explosion at an oil refinery in a suspected drone or sabotage attack, just 80 miles from Vladimir Putin‘s Black Sea palace.

The blast came as yet another Russian general was killed in Moscow’s on-going war against Ukraine, this time in a missile strike.

The double blow for Putin came as Ukraine stepped up its counteroffensive, with Kyiv’s forces claiming they have liberated at least four front-line villages – amid reports that Russian troops are being killed fleeing through their own minefields.

Meanwhile, Russia launched a ‘massive missile’ attack overnight on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, killing at least ten people and damaging civilian infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said early on Tuesday.

Video emerged this morning of the oil refinery in Krasnodar, showing flames and thick noxious black smoke pouring from the facility after the attack.

Krasnodar city is capital of a region of the same name which is linked to annexed Crimea across the Kerch Strait.

Putin’s £1 billion clifftop palace and Gelendzhik – with an underground bunker, pole-dancing boudoir, and vineyard – is less than 80 miles away from the blast.

The city is a key link in Putin’s war effort and a hub for supplying occupied Crimea.

The blaze was at Krasnodar Oil Refinery, in a diesel processing facility, said local Kuban News. More than 130 firefighters were called to the scene.

Attacks inside Russia’s borders have become more frequent in recent months. It is believed that Ukraine, or pro-Ukrainian groups, are using drones to strike key infrastructure such as oil refineries or military bases.

There was no initial claim of responsibility for the Krasnodar attack. The city is around 200 miles away from the front lines in Ukraine.

Krasnodar region also suffered a radio hack this week from anti-Putin partisan group Freedom of Russia Legion.

The message threatened to destroy Putin’s ‘war criminals’ in Crimea but would not pose a threat to the civilian population.

The attack came as Major-General Sergey Goryachev, 52, died in a missile attack in Zaporizhzhia region – adding to Putin’s war woes.

He was Chief of Staff of the Russian 35th Combined Arms Army, and is one of at least 11 generals reported to have died in the war – the first this year.

His death was revealed after Putin had awarded medals to wounded soldiers in a Moscow hospital, accompanied by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

In personally presenting their medals, he acknowledged the heavy toll Russia has suffered in the war.

Earlier the Russian leader had been at a Champagne reception in the Kremlin at a state honours ceremony.

The death of the general was revealed by pro-war military channels who admitted that Russian forces were under pressure due to Ukraine’s counter offensive.

The Russian Defence Ministry has not commented, as is normal with high-ranking deaths among its forces.

‘War takes the best,’ reported war correspondent Yuri Kotenok. 

‘As a result of an enemy missile attack, Major General Sergey Goryachev, Chief of Staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, was killed,’ Kotenok said.

‘The army today lost one of the brightest and most effective military leaders, who combined the highest professionalism with personal courage. Combat friends express their condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.’

Gorbachev had been promoted to general during the war.

Kotenok said Russian forces were facing ‘heavy fighting’ on ‘almost along the entire line of military contact’. He admitted: ‘The situation is difficult in the defence zone of the 60th and 37th motorised rifle brigades.’

News of Goryachev’s death came as Russia launched a ‘massive’ missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih overnight.

Ten people were killed and more were wounded in a Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih early Tuesday, the regional governor said, as air attacks were reported in Kyiv and other cities.

‘A five-storey building got destroyed. According to initial reports, three of its residents died. 25 people were injured,’ Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram. ‘There are still people under the rubble.’

Kryvyi Rih mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said that said that one person is still believed to be trapped under the rubble and 28 others were wounded.

The devastation in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s home town is the latest bloodshed in Russia’s war in Ukraine, now in its 16th month.

Pictures from the scene showed emergency crews working at the bunt-out building, a sight that has become all-too common in the 15-months of war. 

Survivors were seen wrapping in blankets, looking on in disbelief. 

Seven other people were wounded in strikes on two other locations, he added.

Lysak said three cruise missiles were shot down but others got through.

The Ukrainian capital and the northeast city of Kharkiv also came under missile and drone attack.

‘According to initial reports, the enemy used Kh-101/555 cruise missiles,’ Kyiv city military administration said.

‘All enemy targets in the airspace around Kyiv were detected and successfully destroyed by the forces and means of air defence,’ it said, adding there was no immediate information on any casualties or damage.

In Kharkiv, civilian infrastructure was hit in a drone attack, said the city’s mayor Ihor Terekhov.

‘According to initial reports, a utility company in the Kyivskyi district, as well as a warehouse in Saltivskyi district got damaged. A fire broke out as a result of the explosion on the latter,’ he said.

Air alerts were also sounded in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast and the neighbouring Donetsk and Poltava regions.

The fresh wave of air attacks came after Ukraine claimed to have retaken several villages and made advances in its counter-offensive against Russian forces.

‘The fighting is tough, but we are moving forward, this is very important,’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday in his daily evening address.      

Government to shelve windfall tax for oil and gas companies if energy prices fall significantly

• Oil and gas firms currently pay a 35% ‘energy profits levy’ on North Sea profits
• The UK government estimates the levy has raised £2.8bn since being introduced
• Harbour Energy recently declared it would cut 350 jobs due to the windfall tax 

By Harry Wise For This Is Money

Updated: 12:26 EDT, 9 June 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

POPULAR MONEY SECTIONS
Take me to…

Labour donor and eco tycoon Dale Vince today helped Just Stop Oil clowns spark traffic chaos outside the Houses of Parliament by joining the mob in their infuriating parade.

Vince wielded a megaphone as he ranted against the Conservative Party during the march through central London, before passersby yelled at the group that they could ‘shove their leaflets up their a***e’. 

The eco tycoon sparked fury after it emerged that he had donated £1.5million to Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, including £20,000 to the leader and some £10,000 to deputy leader Angela Rayner, according to Electoral Commission data published earlier this year.

Vince owns a huge windfarm company called Ecotricity Ltd which is worth over £100million. He became a Labour member in 2004, the same year he was awarded an OBE. 

More recently Vince has splurged on bankrolling Just Stop Oil, whose actions he has justified. He previously declared: ‘Sometimes laws are unjust. And when that happens, people have to stand up and do something about it. This climate crisis will be with us for hundreds of years.’

Earlier today Just Stop Oil were accosted by furious scaffolders while one cyclist took Metropolitan Police officers to task for refusing to arrest demonstrators clearly marching down the road. They even got in the way of a woman who said she was trying to get to hospital.

 Last night, Rishi Sunak accused Keir Starmer’s green plans of siding with the likes of Just Stop Oil, adding that his policy plans were ‘essentially leading us into an energy surrender’. 

The funding from Mr Vince has come over a number of years but the Prime Minister said that the only people who would benefit from his plan would be ‘dictators and autocrats like Vladimir Putin’. 

Sir Keir has previously condemned the groups actions brandishing the group’s tactics as ‘wrong’ and ‘arrogant’.

But Home Secretary Suella Braverman accused Sir Keir of being ‘in bed with the donors’ while former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said the revelations ‘show who Labour’s paymasters are’. 

Profits from Ecotricity Ltd make Mr Vince one of the wealthiest businessmen in the UK.

He has used his mass fortune to not only fund the opposition party but to also bank roll Just Stop Oil, who have been disrupting rush hour in the capital for months now. 

It is unknown the exact amount of cash he has given to the activist group, however, last week he gave £340,000 to the group.

This came after he was criticised by Conservative MPs and he pledged to match any public donations made to the group in a 48 hour period. 

Met Police officers arrested four Just Stop Oil protesters for refusing to leave the road in Trafalgar Square shortly after midday.

Police officers had to remove them from the road and arrest them. 

It comes as Londoners are becoming increasingly enraged by the climates activists action. 

In a separate march on the Pall Mall today, a group of scaffolders were seen shoving a group of three protesters out of the way to allow HGVs to pass through. 

One of the workers was seen tackling an activist who refused to budge from the road and forced him onto a bonnet of a van, before ripping away his sign

The protesters then returned to the road, with cars honking their horns as they started to slow march again.

The woman trying to get to hospital drove around the group of activists who urged her to drive ‘slowly’.

A taxi driver was also seen pleading with the group, telling them they were creating ‘traffic’.

Seconds later, a woman trying to get to hospital pleaded with the group of six to let her pass.

In a separate march on the Pall Mall, scaffolders were seen shoving three protesters out of the way to allow HGVs to pass through. 

One of the workers tackled an activist who refused to budge from the road and forced him onto the bonnet of a van before ripping away his sign.

Footage from earlier this week showed one Just Stop Oil protester holding a Waitrose shopping bag while shouting: ‘I’m here for my children because they don’t have a future. I don’t want to be here, I want to be with my children as well but right now their future is starvation and war and death.’

Officers from the Metropolitan Police issued a Section 12 condition in all three areas which ordered the protesters to move onto the pavement. 

In response to this morning’s action, the group tweeted: ‘No one likes being disrupted, but also no one likes their government actively planning genocide.’ 

Footage also emerged this week of a furious mother pleading with protesters: ‘I need to get my kids to school,’ as around 75 activists took the capital’s streets.

‘Four of them I’ve just left on the f***ing bus,’ she said. ‘Four of them, and one’s four months. You lot are taking the p***.’

She added: ‘You can [for] 30 seconds let the bus go past. That’s all I’m asking, for 30 seconds. This is ridiculous.’

The activists are in their seventh week of slow-march protests in London.

Other footage this week showed a white van driver trying to push the activists out the way with his vehicle.

One of the protesters told angry commuters: ‘I really don’t want to be here but I have literally spent the last ten years of my life fighting against the climate crisis.

‘Do you think I like being shouted out? Do you think I like this humiliation? We have tried everything and nothing is working. Thousands of people are dying and we could do something about it but we are not.’

Yesterday, a prominent figure in the group, which has been causing havoc on London’s streets since April 24, was arrested for breaking her bail conditions.

Phoebe Plummer, in her early twenties, rose to prominence after throwing paint on Van Gough’s sunflowers at London’s National Gallery. She was arrested in a café in Islington after being caught taking part in a slow march yesterday morning. 

Plummer, whose friends filmed the incident, told the camera that her arrest was a ‘completely draconian overreach of power.’

She continued: ‘I received bail conditions two days ago not to protest on any road in the UK.

‘I still decided to come out and march today because marching has always been part of our democratic process and it is one of our human rights that we should be able to protest.’ 

At one point, eight officers can be seen inside or waiting outside the cafe. 

Oil stocks sank amid fears over the future of North Sea projects.

North Sea producer Harbour Energy shed 3.5 per cent, or 8.2p, to 226.7p, and global giants BP and Shell fell 2.2 per cent, or 10.3p, to 466.6p and 3 per cent, or 70.5p, to 2282p respectively amid reports that a future Labour government would block new North Sea oil projects.

There also remains uncertainty over whether Opec+, the group made up of 13 oil-exporting nations such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and allies including Russia, would increase their output cuts at its meeting on June 4.

Last month it announced plans to slash supply by nearly 1.2million barrels a day. The price of Brent crude sank more than 3 per cent to hover below $75 a barrel.

The London stock market reopened from the bank holiday weekend on a mixed footing, with the FTSE 100 down 1.4 per cent, or 105.13 points, to 7522.07 and the FTSE 250 gained 0.1 per cent, or 13.28 points, to 18807.37.

There was good news for Greencore after the supermarket sandwich maker increased its revenue despite a seasonally quieter first half of the year. Sales rose by a fifth to £925.8m in the six months to the end of March.

But it swung to a loss of £6.2million, having made a £1million profit the year before, amid higher costs and soaring interest rates.

The group also cut costs by axing 25 jobs at the end of March. It also launched a share buyback yesterday worth up to £10million as part of a wider £50million repurchase programme. Shares grew 4.3 per cent, or 3.25p, to 79.05p.

Heading in the other direction was Dr Martens as analysts painted a bleak picture ahead of its results on Thursday. RBC lowered the boot maker’s rating to ‘sector perform’ from ‘outperform’ and cut target price to 180p from 230p. 

The broker flagged concerns over challenges the group faces in the US which makes up 37 per cent of revenues. Shares sank 5.1 per cent, or 8.2p, to 153.1p.

Lloyd’s of London insurer Hiscox has appointed the former boss of Prudential (flat at 1125p) to become its next chairman.

Jonathan Bloomer, who led the former M&G (down 0.03 per cent, or 0.05p, to 198.3p) parent company from 2000 to 2005, is set to join the group on Thursday and replace Robert Childs who will retire on July 1. Shares rose 1 per cent, or 12p, to 1182p.

The boss of Hochschild Mining is to step down after 13 years. Ignacio Bustamante will leave his job at the gold and silver miner on August 26 to move to London and take up a new position at another company.

He will be replaced by Hochschild’s chief operating officer Eduardo Landin, who has held the role for 10 years. Shares rose 1 per cent, or 0.7p, to 72.75p.

Rolls-Royce fell 3.1 per cent, or 4.65p, to 144.4p and BAE Systems dropped 0.8 per cent, or 8p, to 943.4p after the British defence giants were accused by India’s investigative agency of engaging in a ‘criminal conspiracy’ over the supply of fighter jets to the country between 2003 and 2012.

RHI Magnesita stormed to the top of the mid-cap index after the group, which makes heat resistant materials for the steel industry, received an offer for 20 per cent of its shares at 2850p.

The bid, which was tabled by the investment holding group Ignite Luxembourg, represented a 39 per cent premium to the company’s previous closing price.

Shares jumped 23.6 per cent, or 484p, to 2534p.

It was also a positive session for Hunting after the energy services firm increased its profit forecast for 2023 on the back of winning its biggest contract to date worth £73m with India’s Cairn Oil and Gas.

Shares soared 13.4 per cent, or 27p, to 228.5p yesterday.

Pressure on oil firms ramps up as Norway’s sovereign wealth fund throws its weight behind climate activists against Exxon Mobil and Chevron

By Calum Muirhead For The Daily Mail

Updated: 07:18 EDT, 27 May 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

POPULAR MONEY SECTIONS
Take me to…