Plenty in reserve

Aberdeen's plentiful supplies of oil and gas have enabled the city and its brokers to weather the recession and withstand the threat from consolidators in a virtual bubble of affluence. Jessica Pothering reports

Recession got you down? An hour's flight from London could easily change all that. In the Granite City, it's not only the architecture that sparkles; the economy does too, relative to most of the UK. If the insurance industry has had it better than most in the current economy, one might think the industry players in Aberdeen are living in a virtual bubble, as it seems there is only a vague awareness of the recession in the region - a friend of a friend kind of story.

Thanks to a booming oil and