Repsol: Lots of Nat Gas — And Some Crude — Offshore Venezuela

On October 16, 2009

Repsol: Lots of Nat Gas — And Some Crude — Offshore Venezuela

Repsol YPF keeps racking up major oil and gas finds. Their latest has turned out to be the biggest natural gas discovery in Venezuela's history and the fifth-largest in the world in 2009.  The Spanish oil company -- along with partner Eni -- confirmed Friday tests of its Perla 1X well offshore Venezuela indicated up to 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That means up to 7.7 trillion cubic feet of gas, enough to fulfil Spain's gas demand for five years, the company said. During production tests, the well -- located in the Cardon IV field -- also flowed 620 barrels of oil per day, with the flow rate constrained by rig equipment restrictions, according to Repsol. The presence of crude may help speed...
On October 16, 2009

Where’s the Online Monetization Strategy for Balloon Boy?

All day long, I've been wrestling with the fact that BNET Media hasn't yet capitalized on the Balloon Boy phenomenon. (The entire Balloon Boy clan is pictured below.) In case you haven't noticed, BB is everywhere — except, of course, in the balloon that gave him his new moniker in the first place. But there's one thing that hasn't happened in the media concerning Balloon Boy: to date, no one has bought the keyword on Google. Sooooobbbbb! And this, even though Balloon Boy has: Increased page views on Denver's 9News Web site from an average one million per day to 4.6 million. Become the number three and seven trending topic on Twitter, depending on whether or not you use the...
On October 16, 2009

Depomed CEO Pelzel Discusses Serada’s Cold Flush and Placebo Issues

Depomed announced earlier this week that its investigational non-hormonal therapeutic option for the treatment of menopausal hot flashes, Serada (formerly known as DM-5689), failed to meet its primary efficacy endpoints in its two pivotal BREEZE clinical studies. In my opinion, this statement is somewhat misleading: it is not so much that Serada demonstrated limited efficacy in reducing the frequency and severity of hot flushes -- but more that the placebo arm demonstrated higher than expected drops in daily frequency of hot flashes. Serada is an extended release formulation of generic gabapentin, an anti-seizure drug with published clinical data (going back to 2000) showing benefit in helping postmenopausal women control hot flashes. For many women, however, the trade-off has been that...
On October 16, 2009

Debt Settlement Firm Penalized for Customer Fraud

An Arizona-based debt settlement company accused in a lawsuit of preying on people who can't pay their bills has been ordered to pay nearly US$200,000 in penalties for defrauding customers in New York state. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched a nationwide probe last spring into a "renegade industry" of debt settlement businesses.
On October 16, 2009

The Deutsch-Lowe Deal Worst-Case Scenario

Interpublic ignored my advice of a couple of days ago and merged Deutsch and Lowe into a single global agency. Management is supposed to consider the worst-case scenario in mergers before they happen, and IPG CEO Michael Roth gave a nod to that in Adweek. So let's examine the path in front of the combined shop, and ask the question: How could this go wrong?
On October 16, 2009

Higher Gas-Mileage Rules Give Turbos a Big Boost

Time was, automakers added a turbocharger for more power, with worse fuel economy. Today's thinking stands that logic on it head, using a turbo to achieve the same power and better mileage.
On October 16, 2009

Free E-Book Teaches You to ‘Escape the Cubicle’

Freelancing rocks. So does telecommuting. But if you're new to either one, there are challenges aplenty. WebWorkerDaily addresses these challenges on a daily basis, but now the site has culled some of its best posts into a free e-book: Web Work 101: How to Escape the Cubicle. Here's a sampling of the topics you'll find in the 34-page PDF: 6 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Taking on a New Client Search Engine Optimization Basics Common Early Mistakes and How To Avoid Them Be Your Own Tech Support Although the content is good, the layout seems a little slapdash: It's all text, without a single screenshot or illustration. Still, the price is right, so whether you're a new or veteran "Web...
On October 16, 2009

Bullying Bosses Covering for Incompetence, Science Confirms

If you're struggling to get through a long, hard Friday, Entry-Level Rebel has a little present to cheer you up: scientific evidence that, if your boss is a jerk, he or she is probably just compensating for incompetence. In an article that surely boasts one of the most crowd-pleasing business headlines of all time, "It's official: Your bullying boss really is an idiot," New Scientist reports new research that confirms what harassed employees have long suspected: "Power holders feel they need to be superior and competent. When they don't feel they can show that legitimately, they'll show it by taking people down a notch or two," says Nathanael Fast, a social psychologist at the University of Southern California in Los...


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