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The African continent is home to five of the top 30 oil-producing countries in the world. It accounted for more than 8.7 million barrels per day in 2014, which is about 9.4% of world output for the year. This level of production is down somewhat from the heights of 2005 to 2010 when African production topped 10 million barrels per day, including a high of nearly 10.7 million barrels per day in 2010. As of 2015, declines are due mostly to political and civil instability and violence in many of Africa's biggest oil-producing countries. 1. Nigeria Nigeria produced more than 2.4 million barrels of oil per day in 2014 to rank as the 13th-largest oil producer in the world. The country has produced between 2.1 million and about 2.6 million barrels per day for the last 18 years. Fluctuations in annual oil production, especially since 2005, can be attributed largely to security problems connected to violent militant groups in the country. While Nigeria is home to the second-largest proven o...

The US States That Produce the Most Oil A boom in oil production is profoundly changing the U.S. economy and impacting worldwide energy markets. As of 2015, 90% of U.S. oil production, excluding federal offshore drilling, comes from eight states: Texas, North Dakota, California, Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming. The surge in U.S. output is due in large part to the wide use of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as new technologies give drillers access to some of the largest oil deposits in the world that were once too tight to exploit. Fracking is controversial as some believe the chemicals injected into the wells lead to extensive pollution of the water supply. Some also argue the unconventional horizontal drilling awakens dormant faults, causing earthquakes. With domestic crude oil production averaging 9.4 million barrels a day over the first six months of 2015, the United States bypassed Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest producer of crude oil...

The 6 Biggest Russian Energy Companies Russia ranks high among the top energy-producing countries in the world. According to the most recent industry data available, Russia is the world's single biggest producer of crude oil, the second-biggest producer of natural gas and the sixth-biggest producer of coal. Russia also ranks as the fourth-biggest producer of both nuclear power and hydropower. Most of Russia's biggest energy companies, including global giants such as Gazprom, Rosneft, and Lukoil, operate primarily in the oil and gas industry, with interests spanning the full length of the oil and gas supply chain. However, a hydroelectric power company, RusHydro, also makes a showing on this list of Russia's biggest energy companies by market capitalization. 1. Gazprom Gazprom is Russia's biggest energy company by a substantial margin. The company controls the largest natural gas reserves in the world, from which it produced more than 2.6 billion barrel of oil equivalent...

What is Insurance Premium An insurance premium is the amount of money that an individual or business must pay for an insurance policy. The insurance premium is income for the insurance company, once it is earned, and also represents a liability in that the insurer must provide coverage for claims being made against the policy. BREAKING DOWN Insurance Premium The price of an insurance premium for a given insurance policy can vary and depends on a variety of factors. Among those factors are the type of insurance coverage, the likelihood of a claim being made, the area where the policyholder lives or operates a business, the behavior of the person or business being covered, and the amount of competition that the insurer faces. For example, the likelihood of a claim being made against a teenage driver living in an urban area may be higher or lower compared to a teenage driver in a suburban area. In general, the greater the risk associated with a policy, the more expensive the insurance pol...

Salaries for lawyers starting out at firms have remained flat, with an annual pay of $160,000 continuing to be the top of the market, according to a new survey from the National Association for Law Placement. Some 39 percent of the largest firms — those with 700 lawyers or more — reported paying that amount in the association’s 2015 law associates’ salary survey. This was up from last year, when only 27 percent of the big firms reported paying their new legal hires at the uppermost level. But the percentage was still below 2009, when nearly two-thirds of the first-year salaries were at the top point of $160,000. The reason is not that individual firms are paying less, said James G. Leipold, executive director of National Association for Law Placement, but “as more law firms have grown through acquisition and merger, the largest law firms are not as similar to one another as they used to be.” Mr. Leipold added that there were many firms with more than 700 lawyers that have many smaller ...

What is Mortgage Insurance Mortgage insurance is an insurance policy that protects a mortgage lender or title holder in the event that the borrower defaults on payments, dies or is otherwise unable to meet the contractual obligations of the mortgage. Mortgage insurance can refer to private mortgage insurance (PMI), qualified mortgage insurance premium (MIP) insurance or mortgage title insurance. What these have in common is an obligation to make the lender or property holder whole in the event of specific cases of loss. Mortgage life insurance, on the other hand, which sounds similar, is designed to protect heirs if the borrower dies while owing mortgage payments. It may pay off either the lender or the heirs, depending on the terms of the policy. BREAKING DOWN Mortgage Insurance Mortgage insurance may come with a typical pay-as-you-go premium payment, or it may be capitalized into a lump-sum payment at the time of mortgage origination. For homeowners who are required to have PMI becau...

What is Insurance Insurance is a contract, represented by a policy, in which an individual or entity receives financial protection or reimbursement against losses from an insurance company. The company pools clients' risks to make payments more affordable for the insured. Insurance policies are used to hedge against the risk of financial losses, both big and small, that may result from damage to the insured or her property, or from liability for damage or injury caused to a third party. BREAKING DOWN Insurance There are a multitude of different types of insurance policies available, and virtually any individual or business can find an insurance company willing to insure them, for a price. The most common types of personal insurance policies are auto, health, homeowners, and life. Most individuals in the United States have at least one of these types of insurance, and car insurance is required by law. Businesses require special types of insurance policies that insure against specifi...

What Is an Insurance Binder? The insurance binder represents the agreement between you and the insurance company and is a confirmation in writing that a policy will be issued and that you are insured. Definition of Insurance Binder An Insurance Binder is a temporary document issued by an authorized insurance representative that serves as proof of insurance for your home insurance, property or car. Your binder of insurance will outline the basic conditions, coverages, deductibles and named insureds that will appear ​in your insurance contract. An insurance binder is subject to all the terms and conditions of the pending insurance contract. What Information Is Included in an Insurance Binder? The insurance binder should include all the necessary information about the insurance contract that has been purchased. An Insurance Binder Will Include the Following 7 Key Elements: 1. The insurance binder should clearly identify the risk. The risk is that which is insured. For ​example, if the bi...

 Insurance Companies World's Top 10 Insurance helps us to do exactly what this quote suggests. We all face many kinds of risks: risk of meeting with an accident, falling sick, being a victim of a natural disaster or fire, and above all risk of life. All these risks not only come with pain and suffering but also hurt financially. Insurance is one way of being prepared for the worst; it offers the surety that the economic part of the pain will be taken care of. In this article, we take a look at some of the top insurance companies. There are many criteria on the basis of which such a list can be prepared: premium collections, market capitalization, revenue, profit, geographical area, assets and more. The following list focuses on a number of factors and the insurance companies on it are in no particular order. 1) AXA With over 102 million customers in 56 countries and an employee base of 157,000, AXA is one of the world's leading insurance groups. Its main businesses are propert...