Same Tony Blair who had "advised" Libya's Gaddafi, too?

The web site of the METRO"

 http://www.metro.co.uk/news/899611-labour-leader-ed-miliband-taking-advice-from-tony-blair#ixzz1vR9XVkIB

Ed Miliband 'taking advice from Tony Blair'

Ed Miliband has revealed he receives advice from Tony Blair, even though the Labour leader and former prime minister have different ideologies.

Mr Miliband was a close ally of Gordon Brown and leaked memos published last year suggested he played a leading role in the plot to remove Mr Blair from Number 10.

Tony Blair has encouraged Ed Miliband to be his own man (PA)

It seems they have put that episode behind them and the man trying to mastermind a Labour general election victory now feels able to consult someone who led the party to three of them.

Asked about his relationship with Mr Blair, the current Labour leader told the Sunday Telegraph: 'I go and see him every so often and he has been nothing but helpful, supportive, friendly, gives me good advice; and I've got nothing but positive words for the way, from the moment I won and he sent me a note of congratulations, he has behaved in a very supportive way.'

The party's longest-serving prime minister has not used the sessions to encourage the leader of the opposition to adopt more New Labour policies.

Mr Miliband added: 'He and I aren't exactly the same ideologically, partly because times have changed, partly for other reasons as well, but his advice to me is "never do it my way, because it's not going to work!"'

The former prime minister is rumoured to be keen to return to domestic politics after a five-year break, but it is not clear whether he will be offered a prominent role in the Labour party.

'He is obviously an employable statesman who has a portfolio of things he's doing, and a lot to say about important issues, and he will say them in his own way,' Mr Miliband said.

Meanwhile, a new ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror gives Labour a nine-point lead over the Conservatives.

Labour had the backing of 41 per cent of the voters quizzed, while the Tories were on 32 per cent and the Liberal Democrats trailed on 11 per cent. 

Newest Sylhet natural energy reservoir, saviour of the ailing Bangladesh economy.

1425 GMT

Sunday

20 May 2012

The Chinese news agency, ‘XINHUA’ ["New China News Agency") reports on the newest Sylhet natural energy reservoir, saviour of the ailing Bangladesh economy.

[To be continued]

Energy-starved Bangladesh announces discovery of 137 mln barrels of oil

Source:
XINHUA
  |  
2012-5-20  |  
  ONLINE EDITION

DHAKA, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, well known as Petrobangla, Sunday announced discovery of 137 million barrels of oil in two old gas fields in the country 's northeastern Sylhet district.

Petrobangla has estimated that there are 53 million barrels of proven extractable oil in Kailashtila and Haripur gas fields in Sylhet, some 241 km northeast of the capital Dhaka.

The reserves have been discovered by state-run Petrobangla.

Petrobangla chairman Dr Hossain Mansur told a press briefing in Dhaka Sunday evening the oil in the Kailashtila field is light in nature, which is easily extractable, while that in the Haripur field is heavier.

He said Kailashtila's reserve, spread in five to six layers, was almost three times of that in Haripur.

Oil was first discovered in Bangladesh's Haripur field in the late 1980s but it had been abandoned later as the relevant authorities considered the field commercially not viable.

The latest discovery of extractable oil elates Bangladesh as the south Asian nation of about 150 million people is in dire need of locating new sources of energy. The Bangladeshi government has forecast that current gas reserves of the nation will run out in the next five years at the present consumption rate.

The discovery also comes as a big bless for the impoverished economy when it has been bearing the burden of higher fuel consumption in the wake of insufficient and unreliable electricity in the country.

Mansur said though the amount of extractable oil from the fields is nothing compared with the country's annual demand of fuel oil but "we're so happy because we are going to join the oil producing nations."

He said they will soon float an international bid to select foreign firms to extract oil from the fields within one year to support the government's efforts to ease pressure on the economy due to soaring oil import bills.

Annual demand for fuel oil in Bangladesh rose sharply due mainly to the installation of many oil-fired power plants in recent years. The country's fuel oil consumption had been hovering around 3 million tones a year until it jumped to 4.8 million tones fiscal year 2011-12 (July 2011-June 2012).

The amount is likely to surge to 6.8 million tones in the current fiscal year, said an official of state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).

The official who preferred to be unnamed said BPC had also to buy more oil as farm equipments were also dependent more on diesel generators in the wake of frequent loadshedding.

The country's overall electricity generation is now reportedly hovering about 5,600 megawatts (mw) per day against a demand of around 7,000 mw.

The BPC official said the fuel import costs of Bangladesh will be a record of more than 5 billion U.S. dollars in the current fiscal year compared with 4 billion U.S. dollars last fiscal year.

Recently Bangladesh's two development partners -- the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund -- said one of the major reasons for macroeconomic pressures in the country is the rising oil import.