A deadly pipeline explosion that shattered a California town four years ago continues to rip through the state agency weighing a record penalty for the disaster.
The president of the California Public Utilities Commission asked his chief of staff to resign and stepped down himself from the case after “inappropriate e-mail exchanges” with utility PG&E Corp. raised questions about the agency’s bias, according to a statement from the commission yesterday. The CPUC may decide within weeks whether to levy a proposed $1.4billion penalty -- the biggest safety fine in the state’s history -- against PG&E for the 2010 explosion of its natural gas pipeline that killed eight people in San Bruno, California.
Commission President Michael Peevey, who has been accused by San Bruno officials and consumer advocates of being too close to the utility, said in the statement he was recusing himself from the probe to eliminate any appearance of impropriety. The move is a step toward regaining credibility for the CPUC after two years of political infighting has created an ongoing climate of scandal.
If the US ban on oil exports is lifted, the only losers would be refiners that are now benefiting from crude prices cheaper than the global benchmark, said Larry Summers, President Barack Obama’s former economic adviser.
The course of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed $5.4billion Keystone XL pipeline runs through Nebraska’s highest court, which can either speed the project on to US President Barack Obama or delay it indefinitely.
After years of keeping the price of crude sold to the U.S. low enough to maintain market share, Saudi Arabia is losing ground as the shale boom leaves U.S. refiners with ample supplies of inexpensive domestic oil.
Halliburton has agreed to pay $1.1billion to settle a string of lawsuits filed against the firm in relation to its role in one of the most devastating offshore oil spills in US history.
Andes, the Latin America exploration and production group, has strengthened its industry position after agreeing a deal with Trayectoria Oil & Gas (TOG).
BP won’t face a $256billion lawsuit brought by a whistle-blower who claimed the company’s Atlantis oil production platform in the Gulf of Mexico was unsafe.
o fight rising medical costs, oil company BP Plc last year offered Cory Slagle -- a 260-pound former football lineman -- an unusual way to trim $1,200 from his annual insurance bill.
One option was to wear a fitness-tracking bracelet from Fitbit Inc. to earn points toward cheaper health insurance. With the gadget, the 51-year-old walked more than 1 million steps over several months, wirelessly logging the activity on the device. Twelve months later, Slagle has added to his new exercise regimen by trading burgers for salads and soda for water, dropping 70 pounds (31.8 kilograms) and 10 pant sizes in the process.
Skyrocketing oil production in the Permian Basin has reversed a decades-old price relationship between heavy and light crude in the US’s largest oil patch.
Petroleos Mexicanos, preparing for the end of its 76-year state oil monopoly, was granted rights to all the proved and probable oil reserves it sought for development as Mexico opens its doors to foreign competition.
