Ethelene notes

Total finds oil,gas off Norway -oil directorate

“Development of the discovery will be considered in conjunction with other fields in the area,” the NPD said in a statement.The find was made in the Norwegian Sea, some eight kilometres (5 miles) west of the Norne oil and gas field.The partners in production license 127, where the wildcat well 6607/12-2 S was drilled, are Total (50 percent) and Norwegian oil firm Statoil (50 percent).

UPDATE 1-China urges Obama, Congress to stymie currency bill

* Says legislation would hurt China-U.S. tiesBEIJING, Oct 12 (Reuters) - China on Wednesday urged the Obama administration and Congress to stymie a U.S. bill aimed at pressing Beijing to lift the value of the yuan, warning the legislation passed by the Senate could upset efforts to prop up the global economy.The bill is a protectionist step that “gravely violates World Trade Organisation rules,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said after the U.S. Senate approved it in a 63-35 vote and sent it to House of Representatives to debate.”China urges the U.S. government, Congress and all quarters to resolutely oppose using domestic legislation to create a fuss about and put pressure on the renminbi exchange rate,” said Ma in comments on the ministry’s website (www.mfa.gov.cn).The “renminbi”, or “people’s currency,” is another name for China’s yuan currency.The bill will “disrupt the shared efforts of China and the United States, as well the international community, to promote vigorous recovery and growth in the global economy,” said Ma.His condemnation was echoed by China’s Ministry of Commerce.”This not only threatens the stable development of China-U.S. economic and trade relations, it also flies in the face of the efforts of countries across the world to jointly respond to challenges and opposed trade protectionism,” said the commerce ministry spokesman, Shen Danyang.Many U.S. lawmakers, trade unions and manufacturing lobbies say China keeps down the value of its yuan currency to give its exports an unfair edge in global markets.In remarks published on Wednesday, a senior Chinese government researcher urged Beijing not to move ahead with yuan globalisation efforts, saying further yuan liberalisation would strengthen the yuan and hurt China’s exports.In July, U.S. imports from China rose 2.1 percent to $35.1 billion and helped swell the bilateral trade gap with that country to $27.0 billion, the highest in 10 months.The bill would allow the U.S. government to slap countervailing duties on goods from countries found to be subsidizing their exports by undervaluing their currencies.But before President Barack Obama could be forced to decide whether to sign the bill into law, it must first win approval from the House of Representatives, where key Republicans have indicated they dislike the tariff threat.Republican House Speaker John Boehner last week said it would be “dangerous” for Congress to get involved with a foreign country’s exchange rate.Even so, Beijing appears worried that it could become embroiled in an unsettling economic feud with Washington in 2012, when President Barack Obama faces a fight for re-election and China’s Communist Party navigates a leadership handover.China controls the pace of yuan exchange rate movements by setting a daily mid-point from which the currency can rise or fall 0.5 percent versus the dollar each day, and also by intervening in trading on the domestic market.China says it is committed to gradual currency reform and notes the yuan has risen 30 percent against the dollar since 2005. On Tuesday, the People’s Bank of China fixed the yuan daily mid-point at an all-time peak ahead of the vote by the U.S. Senate.