Asia is more at risk from disruption of Middle East oil supplies than is either Europe or the US, yet as a whole it is less prepared to deal with such an upheaval, according to UK think-tank Chatham House. The Middle East now supplies nearly 50% of Asian oil consumption, compared with 12% and 16% of the US and Europe respectively. To mitigate the effects on Asian economies and global oil markets from disruptions in oil supply, Chatham House advocates a “pragmatic programme” of preparations.

Phoenix is to open a new Technology Innovation Centre, at its site in Birmingham. The centre is designed to provide a flexible environment to explore new technologies and solutions, helping customers to understand the impact of change to their IT infrastructure.

Crisis, issues and reputation management consultancy, Regester Larkin is to acquire crisis management and business continuity specialist Steelhenge Consulting. The two firms, which have have already collaborated on a number of client projects are both long established industry consultants.

Congratulations to all the finalists in this year's Business Continuity Awards. The awards provide an evening networking with hundreds of the biggest names in the business continuity field, combined with a night of entertainment. This year the Awards Gala Dinner and Ceremony will be held on 29 May 2014 at the Hilton on Park Lane, London. This year’s host is stand-up comedian Jo Caulfield. Read on for this year's shortlist.

The Business Continuity Institute has published a report into the cost of common threats to organisations, including IT and telecommunications outage, data breach, cyber attacks and adverse weather conditions. One of the aims of the report is drive home the message that business continuity is not the sole domain of an organisation’s business continuity professional.

Small and medium sized businesses in the UK are missing out on insurance deals available to them if they have a business continuity plan in place. This is the finding of a survey of over 500 business and IT decision-makers carried out by cloud services broker Cloud Direct, which shows over half were unaware there were insurance benefits in having a business continuity plan.

A new report published by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), in association with BSI, has revealed that IT-related threats are continuing to provide the greatest concern for organisations, ranking above other threats such as natural disasters, security incidents and industrial disputes. The annual BCI Horizon Scan shows that three quarters of business leaders fear the possibility of an unplanned IT and telecoms outage.

While this winter's wind and rain has been good news for umbrella and anorak manufacturers, it has not been such good news for hosts of the UK's sporting and leisure events, according to sports insurer Sportscover Europe. If the UK flooding continues into March it becomes increasingly possible that events such as the Cheltenham Festival next month could be cancelled.

As a direct response to the regional flooding, Phoenix has brought forward the launch of Re:Cover, a new service aimed at SMEs. Under its umbrella, businesses benefit from cover for both catastrophic IT failure and loss of office facilities following a disaster such as a fire, flood, local police incident or gas leak. As part of the launch, the provider is also offering one year’s free Re:Cover service for those businesses taking out a disaster recovery service contract.

Comedian Jo Caulfield has been announced as host of this year's Business Continuity Awards gala dinner. Jo follows a long line of world-class stand up comedians to host the industry's main event, including Marcus Brigstocke, Kevin Bridges, Dara O’Briain, Jimmy Carr, Ruby Wax, Rob Brydon and Adam Hills.

UK IT and workarea recovery provider, Phoenix has achieved certification to the new international business continuity standard ISO 22301. Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance certified that Phoenix meets all the requirements of the standard, which applies to all of the Phoenix recovery centres across the UK, including the main administration office in Aston in the West Midlands

The Bank of England has today published the findings of the Waking Shark II exercise, which was organised by the Securities Industry Business Continuity Management Group and drew on extensive cyber expertise to design a scenario in which a cyber attack caused disruption to wholesale markets and the financial infrastructure supporting those markets

With the prospect of rising costs, falling commodity prices and decreased productivity levels, mining companies are embracing cost cutting measures to lay the foundation for long-term business growth, according to Willis. In its annual Mining Risk Review, the broker and risk advisor warned companies not to be tempted to cut back on risk management outlays in order achieve cost reductions.

Business interruption and supply chain risks caused by flooding and extreme weather patterns top the list of concerns among corporate insurance experts for 2014, according to Allianz. The third annual Allianz Risk Barometer, which surveyed over 400 corporate insurance experts from 33 countries, highlights the impact of natural catastrophe the subsequent complexity of business risks, particularly for large corporates with international exposures.

A significant increase in conflict, terrorism and regime instability in MENA (Middle East and North Africa), along with intensifying political violence and resource nationalism in East Africa, are among the key factors driving a global rise in political risks for investors, according to the sixth annual Political Risk Atlas by global risk analytics company Maplecroft.