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Poor e-readiness ranking

Rapid growth in broadband penetration in the last 18 months has failed to lift the Republic's position in an annual ranking of developed nations' "e-readiness".

The IBM/Economist Intelligence Unit e-readiness rankings 2008 placed the Republic 21st out of 70 countries. The US was the leading nation followed by Hong Kong, Sweden, Australia and Denmark, last year's top-ranked country.

The report, which has been published annually since 2000, assesses nations' ability to absorb information and communications technology for economic and social enhancement. The Republic scored highly in two of the five categories assessed - business environment and legal environment. Ireland's legal environment achieved a score of 8.6 - the highest score in western Europe, which was also achieved by Denmark and Austria. The Republic only lagged Denmark and Finland in on business environment.

The categories which pulled Ireland down were "connectivity and technology infrastructure" and "Government policy and vision", according to Susanne Dirks, a senior executive with IBM's Institute for Business Value in Ireland. "Broadband is the big issue and it will be interesting to see what happens next year," said Ms Dirks.

Oil rises to over $112 a barrel

Oil surged nearly $4 to a record over $112 a barrel yesterday after a US government report showed a sharp drop in US inventories ahead of the summer driving season.

US crude rose $3.71 to $112.21 a barrel, breaking the previous record high of $111.80 hit on March 17th. London Brent jumped $3.02 to $109.36 a barrel.

US crude stockpiles fell 3.2 million barrels last week as imports declined, countering analyst expectations for a build, while gasoline and distillate inventories also tumbled, the US Energy Information Administration reported. - (Reuters)

Island Oil & Gas gets licence

Island Oil & Gas has been awarded an exploration licence in the Netherlands. The company hopes to split the licence in two to enable it to explore for both oil and gas.The licence is valid for five years.

Connemara extends drilling programme

Connemara Mining has extended a drilling programme at Lough Sheelin in Co Cavan following what it called "initial positive results". Connemara chairman Dr John Teeling said the firm had expected to find zinc but, in the absence of such results, remained "excited" by the prospect.

Boeing shares rise on Dreamliner news

Boeing Co shares rose after it said saying delivery of the new 787 Dreamliner will be delayed until the third quarter of 2009, no later than analysts had predicted. The 787's fuel efficiency amid rising oil prices has made it Boeing's most popular new aircraft ever. - (Bloomberg)