The money will help clean up eight contaminated wells and cover the utility’s legal expenses.Earlier this year, a San Francisco jury found that Shell subsidiaries and another oil firm, Lyondell Chemical, had known MTBE, a suspected carcinogen, was dangerous but suppressed that information when it began marketing fuel with the additive.The settlement also embarrasses Texaco, since it includes MTBE contamination by stations operating under a Shell-Texaco fuel refining and marketing joint venture in California called Equilon.Shell was prosecuted after it did not support an out-of-court deal that was agreed by Exxon and Chevron before the trial began in October last year.Exxon and Chevron then paid the local water board $12m and $10m respectively, and Lyondell settled in July for $4m. Shell’s settlement is the largest made by the 16 oil companies, refineries, MTBE manufacturers and petrol distributors that have now paid out $69m to clean up the district’s contaminated supplies.”Shell’s settlement isn’t an admission of guilt but we determined that this was the most appropriate action to terminate protracted litigation and appellate expense,” the firm said in a statement.MTBE is used by British oil firms for high octane unleaded petrol.. The wife of former Enron chief executive, Jeffery Skilling, is demanding $875,000 (£570,000) in severance pay from the collapsed energy giant. The 46 have refused to accept a deal offered by Enron to employees laid off after Enron filed for bankruptcy in December, which would give them $13,500 each. They have applied to bankruptcy judge Arthur Gonzales for a total of $25m in payments. Enron has already paid $32m to employees laid off since December.Enron was known for its lavish remuneration – its top 144 executives were paid an astonishing $744m in its final year of operation, an average of more than $5m each.The largest severance demand has come from Mark Frevert, who was vice-chairman of Enron He is claiming $6.6m which he says he is owed.

Records show Mr Frevert received $17.3m from Enron in the year before it collapsed. John Sherriff, the London-based head of Enron Europe, is demanding $1.6m in pay-offs. He received $4.3m last year.Ms Carter, an accountant who once worked for Enron’s auditors Arthur Andersen, earned $477,500 in the year before Enron’s collapse. She met Mr Skilling when they both worked for Enron and married shortly after its demise.Mr Skilling, one of the architects of Enron’s rapid rise and fall, resigned last year having just picked up a $5.6m bonus and having sold shares worth $13m.. Rolls-Royce, the aeroplane engine manufacturer, could lose up to £20m in annual profits due to the restructuring announced last week at American Airlines. The changes include the retirement of 73 Fokker 100 aeroplanes, which are powered by Rolls-Royce engines. UBS Warburg analyst Colin Crook predicted that in the worst-case scenario, if the aeroplanes are not sold, the cost to Rolls-Royce could be as much as £20m per year in lost repairs and spares sales.

This would dent expected profits in 2003 of £297m.It is not a good time to sell aeroplanes, as airlines around the world are facing financial crises But some analysts believe the impact may not be so severe. Schroder Salomon Smith Barney predicts a fall in Rolls’ annual profits of £15m for 2003 and 2004.Concerns about the impact of American Airlines were a factor in the 10 per cent fall in Rolls’ share price to 128p last week.However, a spokesperson for Rolls-Royce pointed out that since most of its other engines in service are comparatively young, with an average age of eight years, it did not expect that many more would be retired. Aircraft companies are more likely to retain younger and more efficient aircraft.. As many as 70,000 folk may not be who they say they are.That’s how many people the Cabinet Office estimates fall victim to identity theft every year. The number has risen by 50 per cent in the last year and is 25 times what it was three years ago.
Rather than stealing wallets and handbags, professional criminals are copying credit card details, using information in discarded letters from banks or simply passing themselves off as someone else, to commit fraud.The Association of Payment Clearing Services (APCS) estimates that credit card fraud will be running at £650m within a few years, up from £95m in 1998. Industry sources say that one high street bank alone, HSBC, last year put aside £100m just to cover the cost of credit card fraud.

Overall, the Cabinet Office reckons the cost of identity theft is £1.3bn a year .. and rising.. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have warned the Government that there is a “significant risk” of the part-privatised national air traffic control system being forced into a Railtrack-style collapse. Yet that is precisely what will happen unless the CAA joins with the Government, Nats, The Airline Group and the banks to work together to find a way out of the current impasse.”BA’s six-page submission to the CAA warns: “Without a modification to the price cap, there is a significant risk of Air Traffic Administration with the subsequent discontinuation of the [public-private partnership] model.”Under the 2000 Transport Act, if Nats goes into administration the Transport Secretary has the power to provide new grants and loans to the system and guarantee interest payments to creditors. This would effectively mean the re-nationalisation of Nats.Air traffic control was plunged into crisis after the terrorist attacks of 11 September, which led to a sudden reduction in flights. Nats has calculated that, as a result, it will lose £230m in revenues.The CAA is considering Nats’ application to increase the amount of money it charges airlines for its services.