Cold deal, tough talk

This week, we look at media comment on Exxon’s partnership with Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, to explore for oil in the Arctic. We also focus on tough advice to bankers from Christine Lagarde, the new head of the International Monetary Fund.

Oil in cold waters

For months, British Petroleum (BP) had been negotiating with Rosneft for an Arctic cooperation, but the deal fell through in May this year. Now an American oil giant, ExxonMobil, has stepped in. This is a serious strategic loss for BP, according to the Financial Times.

  … Exxon’s deal rams home the strategic loss to BP. Not only did the Rosneft transaction hold out the possibility of rebuilding [BP’s] fortunes after last year’s environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico; it was a chance to steal a march on rivals in developing new deep-water reserves in the icy virgin seas of the Arctic. … BP has only itself to blame. …

Lagarde’s Tough Talk

The new head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, is off to a good start, writes the International Herald Tribune. Lagarde was not afraid to be direct recently in her advice to top bankers. But is anyone listening?

Less than two months after being chosen to lead the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde shook up [the] conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with an urgent, much needed plea for bolder economic policies in the United States and Europe to head off a looming double-dip recession. … She rightly called for: rebalancing global trade by stimulating demand in developing countries with big export surpluses; more aggressive mortgage relief in the United States; and giving job creation priority over deficit reduction in the United States and Europe. …