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The International Energy Agency, the adviser to developed nations, said this weekend it was ready to dip into emergency stockpiles if the upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa affects oil supplies for a "prolonged" period.Libya shut down 850,000 barrels of production last week ? about 1% of global supplies ? amid a popular uprising against Muammar Gadaffi. David Fyfe, head of the IEA's oil and markets division, said its 28-country members had 1.6 billion barrels in emergency reserves. "We could provide 2m barrels a day for the next two years," he said, the Sunday Times reports.The collapse of the Gaddafi regime will set back British trade links by a decade and slow down Libya's economic reconstruction, claim business leaders with ties to the country. Libya started liberalising its economy in the late 1990s, and its return to the international fold was cemented when Tony Blair met Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in early 2004. Britain-Libya trade is now worth £1.5bn, of which the largest part is oil imported from the North African state, the Sunday Independent reports. The Irish government attempted to secure a multibillion-pound bailout for the country's cash-strapped banks from Muammar Gadaffi's international investment fund late last year. A delegation from Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency went to Libya in the first week of December, in an attempt to secure a cash injection for Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks or Anglo Irish Bank. Brian Lenihan, the finance minister at the time, is believed to have been aware of the negotiations, the Sunday Times reports.A government plan to slash rural petrol prices by 22p a gallon is expected to be trialled next month. As a first step, Chancellor George Osborne is poised to unveil a 5p-a-litre subsidy for drivers on the islands north of Scotland and the Isles of Scilly, the Mail on Sunday reports.HSBC is poised to unveil the largest profit generated by a British bank since the start of the financial crisis. The nation's biggest bank is expected to announce a $20bn (£13bn) pre-tax gain for last year, almost triple its profits in 2009 and close to the record $24.2bn it recorded before the credit crunch. The booming figures, unveiled tomorrow, will underline the financial strength of the bank, which makes about 80% of its profits overseas. With a market valuation of £126bn, it is worth more than Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays combined, the Sunday Times reports.ITV will unveil plans to return to the dividend list this week, as April's royal wedding provides another fillip for advertising income. Adam Crozier, the broadcaster's chief executive, will say he intends to restart the payout in 2011 after a two-year break and set aside more cash for the acquisition of programme makers to boost its production arm. Underlying profits are expected to have nearly tripled to more than £300m last year after advertising expenditure bounced back. The boom has continued into 2011, with ITV's income up 8% in the first quarter and currently 12% higher in April than a year ago, the Sunday Times reports. Glencore has opened talks with sovereign wealth funds from China and Qatar to bring in a cornerstone investor for its blockbuster $60bn (£37 bn) London float. The talks, with the China Investment Corporation and Qatar Investment Authority, come as the Swiss commodities giant prepares to fire the starting gun on an offering that will rank among the 10 largest ever, according to researcher Dealogic. Ivan Glasenberg, the chief executive, and other top executives will tomorrow make the first of a series of presentations to analysts in London, a key step in establishing the value of the secretive firm, the Sunday Times reports.Glencore has appointed a consortium of eight banks to raise up to $8bn (£5bn) of new funding, firing the starting pistol on its audacious $60bn London stock market listing. The Switzerland-based mineral and trading giant has brought in five new banks to create, with its team of three core advisers, a nearly unprecedented group of fund-raisers, the Sunday Telegraph adds.BP is suing the Government for almost £300m plus compensation, claiming it is owed tax paid "by mistake" more than a decade ago. The London-based oil giant is accusing HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of wrongly charging it "stamp duty reserve tax" when it took over a US rival called Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) for $26bn (£16.1bn) in 1999, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Ernst & Young, the accountancy giant, is being investigated over an alleged conflict of interest in its handling of the biggest pre-pack administration in British corporate history. Investors lost more than £1.3bn in the collapse of Wind Hellas, the Greek telecoms company, which was overseen by the accountant. Wind Hellas relocated its headquarters from Luxembourg to London in summer 2009, three months before it went into administration, the Sunday Times reports.The Serious Fraud Office has started looking into companies behind the A1 Grand Prix Series - the collapsed rival to Formula One - whose creditors still claim to be owed more than £400m. It is almost two years since the event billed as the "World Cup of Motor Racing" ran out of money, cancelling a key race on Australia's Gold Coast and calling in the administrators to its UK operating company, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Errol Damelin, chief executive at payday loans business Wonga, has slammed banks as "an oligopoly" and defended his company's highly criticised high interest repayment structure as being part of the "Facebook generation". MPs have attacked the short-term loans industry for its quadruple figure APR charges, which amounts annually to a typical 2,689% in Wonga's case, the Sunday Independent reports.A series of key economic indicators next week should show that growth held up in February, underpinning hopes of a revival after the disappointing end to 2010. The latest round of the purchasing managers' indexes (PMIs), which measure monthly changes in activity, should paint a more encouraging picture of the direction in which the economy is heading, the Sunday Telegraph reports.