Simon Hartley

Offshore oil and gas explorer Shell appears more confident its proposed deepwater drilling in the Great South Basin will go ahead.

Canterbury's rebuild continues to underpin the country's economic growth, but other than that there are few signs of growth in company investment and hiring.

The Government's tagging of $100 million to prop up ailing state-owned enterprise Solid Energy from the $3.5 billion Mighty River Power part-sale has been described by Labour as a ''cover-up gone wrong''.

Dwindling cash reserves for specialist West Coast coal mine developer Bathurst Resources have raised questions as to whether it might seek more capital - given the project is at least 18 months behind schedule.

West Coast coal mine developer Bathurst Resources, which is bound up in multiple court challenges, has one less legal appeal to worry about, while listed Dunedin company Scott Technology has pulled out of buying a fledgling Australian coal conveyor belt company.

A record six-year low in the number of houses on the market continues to underpin higher prices and highlights the Reserve Bank's concerns of increased risks to financial stability.

More Dunedin job losses are on the horizon as commercial printer Wickliffe is about to restructure and merge its Fairfield plant operations into an expanded Kaikorai Valley site.

Petrol prices around the country could be on the rise again as the cushioning effect from the strong New Zealand dollar evaporates with its weakening.

Global logistics company Mainfreight has confirmed it intends make a legal claim against the former owner of the underperforming European-based Wim Bosman Group, which it purchased more than two years ago for more than $200 million.

Oceana Gold's Globe Progress open pit mine at Reefton on the West Coast could have its mine life slashed in half to about two years.

Subscriptions to the life-saving database painstakingly built up by New Zealand's National Poisons Centre in Dunedin during the past 50 years go on sale in the United States this week. Those sales could provide millions of dollars for further research and development.

Oceana Gold has released a bold market update, predicting it will be operating up to four mines in several countries within five years, but fired a surprise warning shot across the bows of its mainstay New Zealand operations.

The effects of the drought have offset gains from Canterbury construction, meaning only a ''modest'' increase in economic growth in the March quarter.

Officers aboard one of two Korean-owned deep-sea trawlers berthed in Dunedin are facing allegations of illegally dumping fish at sea, brought by the fisheries division of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI)The allegations stem from when the ships were on charter to a subsidiary company of Christchurch-based United Fisheries, UFL Charters Ltd, while fishing off the South Island for hoki and other species.

The country's services sector edged up last month to its highest level for May in six years, following last week's resurgent manufacturing index which was at its highest May level for nine years.