06/06/2013 World Business Report

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Get fracking! The boss of Shell says Europe is missing out on the

revolution in shale energy. Meanwhile, US firms rake in the

benefits of cheap fuel. Plus: view from the Golden Bridge. We're live

from the World Economic Forum in Burma - to find out why it's one of

the world's hottest investment destinations. I'm Sally Bundock.

Also in the programme: its proving to be another volatile trading

session in Tokyo. We'll have the latest. Europe faces a growing

struggle to compete with the US because of the cheap energy

released by "fracking". That's the warning from the boss of oil giant

Shell - Peter Voser. He's told the BBC that US firms face much lower

energy costs than their European rivals because of a "revolution" in

extracting oil and gas from shale rock - something the US has been

doing for more than a decade - but it has yet to take off on this side

of the Atlantic. Let's remind ourselves how fracking works. The

technique involves drilling thousands of feet down, then

sideways into the rock. Explosions are used to fracture the shale

formations. They may go sideways. Then, water, sand and chemicals are

forced in, breaking open the rock and releasing oil or gas that could

otherwise not be reached. At the moment the US is way ahead of the

rest of the world, giving industry there much lower energy prices.

Global oil prices may become lower. Here's the boss of Shell, Peter

Voser. We did not have this technology before but we can

develop it. There's a lot of gas in the revolution. Gives much more or

all. The US has more certainty and competitiveness. It gives the price

pressure because the oil production is much faster than the

infrastructure such as pipelines and transporting and shipping and

repining. It's not up to scratch and they need to catch up. For

while there will be volatility and differentials and discounts but

over time, once the infrastructure comes up, it will Road over time

and will go back when all pricing. Evidence is emerging that there are

big shall and gas deposits under North Africa and you are investing

$1 billion in China each year with a lot of interest in South America

and in Europe, Great Britain, Poland and Germany. About 20 years'

time, will be a new global order in the energy world? It may be

significant. We will make a distinction between North America

and the rest. They had developed this over 50 years and it's been

proven. The rest of the world, we need to just going to explore at

the moment find out how much is there because we don't know but

there is optimism through geological analysis to see these

formations. But it still needs to be proven. What implications will

his revolution have to the competitiveness compared the rest

of the world and the US? Their gas they have there, is what we call a

very cheap stock. That can be brought for manufacturers and

petrochemicals and heavy steel making. The energy bill Their

energy bills will fall, and that makes them more competitive. So

what you see now is that actually that the US is bringing back those

manufacturing plants, and these steel plants, and these

petrochemical plants into the US, generate jobs and get very

competitive. Now this will be to the detriment of Europe for example

- because we will lose some of these manufacturing places, and

therefore we will lose jobs, and that really is the challenge we

have in Europe to stay competitive. They are calling it the Golden

Bridge. Bordering both South and East Asia, linking India to China -

after years of political isolation, Burma is now being touted as one of

the hottest investment opportunities. That's why the

capital Naypyidaw has been chosen as the location for this week's

World Economic Forum. Hundreds of the world's top business leaders

are there, as well as our Chief Business Correspondent Linda Yueh.

Tell us more. Over 900 executives are here at this economic Forum to

discover what Burma has to offer. I am joined by the President for the

South-East Asia for Mastercard. It's great to speak to you. Can you

talk us through wide the country has so much potential in

transforming from a cash to credit society? It's a resource-rich

economy with 60 million people in isolation for over 50 years.

Suddenly, the shackles have come off to create a real pioneering

market opportunity and for Russ, it's correct, it's a cash economy

100%. By bringing in a electronic payments to this market, we will be

able to drive inclusion, efficiency and support economic development

and this is very exciting. It's quite a poor country less than

$1,000 earned by each people but what is the biggest challenge to

realise the potential? There is a number of challenges for this

market. Roughly speaking it's about working with the consumer to make

sure they can trust the electronic payments and the banking with a

crisis risibly so we want to make sure transactions it easy and smart

all the things that Mastercard stands for in trust of electronic

payments. Once they see it, they will become confident the use

credit cards. One of the keys for this business here is a

continuation and political reforms and the opening up. Will these

changes become irreversible? What we are seeing is that the

Government is very sincere. Everyone we spoke to knows they

need to do this. The commitment is ready to go. Everybody wants

dialogue and they want to make change and may feel confident that

they will do it. It's a huge task. You need take time and they need to

be careful and informed but we feel very Ward that things will happen.

I may not happen as quickly as we would like but at the same time the

commitment is there from the leaders of this country. There's a

lot of potential here but a little bit of weariness as to the growth

of the market here in this 60 More updates on that. It's been

another volatile session for share markets in Asia, particularly in

Japan. Sharanjit Leyl is at our Asia business hub in Singapore. In

Japan right now, every day we see swift inclines and declines. Tell

us about the market today. That's right. It's a roller-coaster ride.

The Japanese Nikkei, the stock market has been very volatile

recently. It's fallen 17% since peaking in May. It's fallen well

below the psychological 13,000 mark where it's lurking today. Before

that it had been staggering with games soaring to 80% from last

November. But three weeks ago, stocks have been very volatile this

week after disappointment over plans unveiled yesterday by Shinzo

Abe, the Prime Minister, his aggressive stimulus package. He

proposes to raise him comes and composes economic zones for

attracting more foreign business but this was not considered radical

and up by many investors have sold up the stocks falling 2% yesterday

and their continuing to fall today. Thank you very much for that. We

will talk to the trade is about those markets later. The

International Monetary Fund has admitted it made mistakes in

handling Greece's first international bailout. The IMF said

it was too optimistic in its growth assumptions and said a debt

restructuring should have been considered earlier. Greece was

granted a 110bn euro bailout by the IMF and EU in May 2010. Another

130bn euro rescue package was approved in February 2012. From

today Brussels will impose import tariffs on Chinese solar panels,

which now account for 80% of the panels used in the European Union.

It has raised fears of a damaging trade war after China announced

it's investigating the possible unfair pricing of European wine.

The apparent tit-for-tat move appears to target southern European

countries which backed the solar panel action - particularly France

which sells more than half the 300 million litres of European wine

bought by China each year. The European Central Bank holds its

monthly policy meeting later - it is expected to keep its main

interest rate at a record low of 0.5% after last month's cut.

Markets will be looking for any clues as to the next move. They