Europe

Since its formation in 2003, Offshore Marine Management (OMM) has grown within the renewable energy, subsea telecoms and oil and gas sectors, expanding from providing personnel for offshore projects to taking on turnkey cable installation contracts. Indeed, OMM’s ability to adapt to ever changing market conditions has allowed it to flourish even in times of economic uncertainty.

Measuring approximately 1,850 kilometres in length and with a width varying between from 370 to 805 kilometres, the Scandinavian Peninsula is one of Europe’s largest. Covering Norway, Sweden and most of northern Finland, the Peninsula we see today has been shaped through history by the impact of various Ice Ages, events that have deepened its river valleys, created the famous fjords of Norway and left only a small percentage of the land arable.

The economy of Cyprus in recent years has largely depended on tourism and financial services. The fundamentals of these industries are still sound despite the well documented financial and banking crisis that affected the island in 2012 and Cyprus is now making every effort to restore its economic stability.

Discipline is a great virtue in the challenging price environment the gold mining industry finds itself in today: the players who can keep operating through the lean times will be the ones best place to take advantage of anticipated price rises. But though these struggled upward to the tune of some $60 over the course of January – and western economies are showing signs of growth allied to greater confidence – prospects for 2014 remain uncertain. Investors know that, and they continue to set a premium on discipline.

When asked to explain just how important North Sea oil and gas remains, it doesn’t take Malcolm Webb, chief executive of Oil & Gas UK, very long to respond with what I think you will agree is a pretty conclusive response. “Today the UK is reliant on oil and gas for approximately 73 percent of its primary energy supply.”

Total SA of France has become the first oil major to back shale gas exploration in Britain by announcing that it will commit £30 million to advance drilling projects in Lincolnshire. Total will pay $1.6 million in back costs and fund a work programme of up to $46.5 million, with a $19.5 million minimum commitment.

The Alps are Europe’s great natural boundary, cutting Italy off from the rest of the continent. Getting from one side to the other whether for purposes of travel, war or trade has been a headache ever since ‘the iceman’ Ötzi lost his life 5,000 years ago on the Fineilspitze, not 20 miles to the east of the Brenner pass.

The agreement ends long negotiations with the current owners, Veba, the healthcare trust affiliated to the United Auto Workers' union (UAW). The deal will see Chrysler and Fiat pay the trust an initial $3.65 billion. Once the deal is signed off, Chrysler will then pay Fiat another $700 million.

In 2006 when he seriously started to sell his conviction that Greenland would be the next game-changer in the global supply chain for minerals, Rod McIllree found that the investment community in his native Australia shared neither his enthusiasm nor his outlook. In Australia not many people had heard of the Ilimaussaq Complex right at the southern tip of Greenland, which had been investigated by geologists from Greenland’s ‘mother country’ Denmark for decades and had been found to be rich in uranium.

The world’s second most used metal after steel, aluminium is blessed with a host of positive characteristics that have made its use invaluable to the modern world. The most common metal found in the earth’s crust, it possesses a remarkably low weight-to-strength ratio, high resistance to corrosion, is easy to shape and is 100 percent recyclable.