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BP Restarts Texas City Refinery Reformer -Filing Sun Nov 1, 2009 5:20pm EST HOUSTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) began restarting Ultraformer No. 4 at its 475,000 barrel per day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery on Sunday, according to a notice filed on Saturday with state pollution regulators.[snip]

BP has been fined a record $87m (£53m) for failing to correct safety hazards at its Texas City refinery in the US. An explosion in 2005 at the Texas plant killed 15 people and injured 170 more. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited 270 violations at the oil refinery, a US Labor Department official said.

Energy: An amazing number of oil finds have been made this year, including the biggest in California in 35 years. If the world is running out of oil, why do we keep finding more of it? The mantra of the anti-drilling crowd has been that oil companies like to sit on their leases and the oil in the ground, hoping to drive up the price. They should use the leases they have or lose them, these critics say. They also like to add that the world is running out of oil so it doesn't matter anyway. Occidental Petroleum hasn't been...

Energy: An amazing number of oil finds have been made this year, including the biggest in California in 35 years. If the world is running out of oil, why do we keep finding more of it? The mantra of the anti-drilling crowd has been that oil companies like to sit on their leases and the oil in the ground, hoping to drive up the price. They should use the leases they have or lose them, these critics say. They also like to add that the world is running out of oil so it doesn't matter anyway. Occidental Petroleum hasn't been...

BP has announced the discovery of yet another huge oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, communist Russia is ready to work with Cuba to begin drilling 50 miles offshore Key West in the Gulf, and China is negotiating with Canada for the right to develop the vast oil resources in Alberta. Still, the Obama administration has remained resolute in opposing U.S. offshore drilling, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports. Found 250 miles southeast of Houston, the Tiber well was found under 4,132 feet (.8 mile) of water and was drilled to a total depth of 35,055...

Energy Policy: Ignoring peak-oil Cassandras, BP has made another giant oil find in the Gulf of Mexico. We're not running out of oil. Our government just doesn't want us to look for it.The world is running out of oil and good riddance. That's the environmentalists' mantra. But since the first well was drilled near Titusville, Pa., 150 years ago, the prophecy has gone unfulfilled. Trouble is, those darn greedy oil companies keep finding the stuff. Oil has been produced in the Gulf of Mexico since the first well was drilled by Kerr-McGee Corp. in 1947. Some of the wells are...

BP said Wednesday that it has drilled the world's deepest oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and found a giant pool of crude, a discovery that promises to make an indelible mark on the south Louisiana economy. The Tiber Prospect is expected to rank among the largest petroleum discoveries in the United States, potentially producing half as much crude in a day as Alaska's famous North Slope oil field. Louisiana energy circles were abuzz with news of the discovery Wednesday. "Any incremental business in the Gulf of Mexico is going to be a net positive for us one way...

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal. Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards. The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release. The correspondence makes it plain that the key...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Nobel laureate Steven Chu as energy secretary and Lisa Jackson to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, according to media reports Wednesday. Obama is also expected to name Carol Browner as energy 'czar,' the reports said. Chu, a Chinese-American, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997.

The global-warming debate is shifting from science to economics. For years, the fight over the Earth's rising temperature has been mostly over what's causing it: fossil-fuel emissions or natural factors beyond man's control. Now, some of the country's biggest industrial companies are acknowledging that fossil fuels are a major culprit whose emissions should be cut significantly over time. A growing number of these companies are pushing for a mandatory emissions limit, or "cap." Some see a lucrative new market in clean-energy technologies. Many figure a regulation is politically inevitable and they want to be in the room when it's negotiated,...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

BP and CNPC have won the right to help Iraq develop the Rumaila field. The UK and Chinese companies beat ExxonMobil, the US oil company, which had partnered with Petronas, the Malaysian oil company. BP clinched the contract when it agreed to reduce its fee per barrel from $3.99 to $2. But the rest of the auction has not gone as smoothly. In fact, so far, the smaller five of the eight oil and gas fields being auctioned off have failed to find a company willing to accept the narrow terms and the relatively low price Iraq is willing to...

This guy is one of a kind in the rap world, with pro-Christian, pro-America, pro-liberty rhymes.

US Army report states that America may be forced to intervene in Mexico to prevent the country from collapsing at the hands of organised crime and drug cartels. The report compiled by the army’s highest command has placed Mexico alongside Pakistan as possible failed states of the future. The report states: “Two large and important states bear consideration for rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.” Mexico has a population of 110 million and shares a two thousand mile border with America. It also is next to the smuggling routes linking the US with the drug-growing areas of South America...

Levi Johnston, the boyfriend of Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, has quit his North Slope oil field job over questions about his eligibility to work in an electrical apprenticeship program, Johnston's father said Monday. Johnston, 18, began working this fall in the Milne Point oil field with ASRC Energy Services Inc., a major Slope contractor. In a Sunday newspaper column, Anchorage radio talk show host Dan Fagan questioned how Johnston could take part in ASRC's apprenticeship program without a high school diploma. Fagan said he understood federal regulations require all members of apprenticeship programs to have a diploma. He also...

Does America need a terrorist financier to secure its “freedom”? Sami al-Arian thinks so. His National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom poses as a watchdog for the Constitution, but he has focused his lobbying efforts on repealing anti-terrorist legislation. While Sami al-Arian himself has been arrested for being a prime financier for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (and likely one of its three founders), his political movement continues to threaten homeland security. Al-Arian founded the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (NCPPF) in 1997 as a reaction to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996. The coalition’s stated goal “is to help change the...

Four people were in custody Tuesday after a smuggling suspect tried to run over a U.S. Border Patrol agent at an East County freeway checkpoint, prompting the officer to open fire, authorities said. The driver allegedly steered a vehicle carrying suspected illegal immigrants at the federal officer at the Buckman Springs-area citizenship verification station on westbound Interstate 8 about 4 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol and USBP public affairs. The agent suffered minor injuries, either when struck by the vehicle or while jumping out of the way, officials reported. The federal officer's gunfire caused no injuries, Border Patrol...

So how does the experience of Sarah Palin stack up against the experience of Joe Biden? Just ask British PetroleumWould you trust Sarah Palin to negotiate with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions? Well, why not? Palin came into the governor's office and found a mess on her desk. The oil deal struck by defeated Republican governor Frank Murkowski wasn't working. Through creative accounting by big oil and ambiguous reporting standards, the Murkowski plan just wasn't giving the State of Alaska the pay-off that was expected. So the former mayor of Wasilla (population 9,000, as the MSM always points out) demanded that...

LONDON (Reuters) - BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday exports of Azeri oil from Turkey should resume next week after repairs to the $4 billion (2.1 billion pounds) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline damaged by a fire two weeks ago. The line can pump up to 1 million barrels per day of oil, equal to more than 1 percent of world supply, from fields in the Azeri part of the Caspian Sea to Ceyhan in Turkey. Its closure had supported world oil prices, which fell initially on news that it was reopening. "We've taken the decision to start dynamic integrity...

Russian jets targeted a key oil pipeline with over 50 missiles in a weekend bombing raid in Georgia that raised fears the conflict will tighten Moscow's stranglehold on Europe's energy supplies. Deep craters pockmark the landscape south of the Georgian capital Tblisi in a Y-shaped pattern straddling the British-operated pipeline. The attack left two deep holes less than 100 yards either side of a pressure vent on the pipeline. Shrapnel of highly engineered munitions litters the area. There was no visible damage to the pipeline. Its vulnerability is summed up by a yellow hazard sign next to the vent warning...

The war in Georgia escalated dangerously last night after Russian jets reportedly bombed a vital pipeline that supplies oil to the West. After a day of heightening international tensions, Georgian leaders claimed that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, had been attacked. But it is thought the bombs missed their target. Their claims came after Russian jets struck deep into the territory of its tiny neighbour, killing civilians and ‘completely devastating’ the strategic Black Sea port of Poti, a staging post for oil and other energy supplies. Georgian economic development minister Ekaterina Sharashidzne said:...

Excerpt - MOSCOW (AFP)--British-Russian oil company TNK-BP chief executive, Robert Dudley, has been summoned to appear before Russian prosecutors on Monday to explain "violations" of labor laws by his company, Interfax news agency reported Saturday. Dudley "temporarily" left Russia this week, the company said Thursday, saying he would run the company from outside the country. ~ snip ~

TNK-BP: something rotten in the state of Russia David Wighton: Business Editor’s commentary With its tail between its legs, Britain's biggest company is being all but chased out of Russia. BP will try to put a brave face on the retreat of Bob Dudley, still nominally chief executive of TNK-BP, to the safety of St James's Square. But it does not look good. When you wish to assert your authority, the best way to conduct business is not by e-mail from an office thousands of miles away. If BP is to avoid a de facto transfer of management authority to...

ASHINGTON - Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species because of global warming, the Bush administration is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas.

BP has upped the stakes in its battle for control of its Russian joint venture, by accusing Vladimir Putin of damaging his country's reputation through failing to intervene in the escalating dispute. John Sutherland, the BP chairman, used a press conference in Stockholm to lament the prime minister's lack of action to halt oligarchs using strong-arm tactics to try to take control of TNK-BP. "This is just a return to the corporate raiding activities that were prevalent in Russia in the 1990s. Prime minister Putin has referred to these tactics as relics of the 1990s, but unfortunately our partners continue...

LONDON (Reuters) - A pipeline carrying nearly half of Britain's oil was closed on Sunday as a strike over pensions began at the neighboring Grangemouth refinery in Scotland, operator BP said. The refinery, owned by international chemical company Ineos, produces a tenth of Britain's petrol and diesel but also supplies vital steam to BP's Kinneil plant that starts to process the crude oil coming ashore from 70 North Sea fields. Unions have rejected pleas to operate the steam plant at the level necessary to keep Kinneil functioning during the two-day stoppage which began at 6 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT)....

House Speaker John Harris is threatening to hold hearings on whether owners of the shipping company that hauls North Slope crude oil for BP are skimping on tanker maintenance. Harris, R-Valdez, recently fired letters to top executives of three firms that jointly own Alaska Tanker Co., the operator of BP's troubled tanker fleet. Harris, said he wrote the letters after ATC's president, Anil Mathur, came to him and said he was having difficulties with the company owners. Harris wrote that he understood Mathur had been "warned and put on notice by you ... for poor behavior" after funding for tanker...

A senior executive at TNK-BP told us a few months ago that the oil company was "a poster child" for foreign investment in Russia. So it is turning out to be, only not in the way that he intended. Blessed by Vladimir Putin at its creation in 2003, BP's Russian joint venture is now getting the standard Kremlin treatment. Yesterday a "bureaucratic" visa problem forced the British company to send home 148 expatriate workers. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry launched a "tax evasion" probe into a TNK-BP unit. And last week, the (renamed) KGB raided the oil company's Moscow offices and...

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had arrested Ilya Zaslavsky, an employee of TNK-BP, and his brother Alexander, on suspicion of industrial espionage. The arrest on spying charges of an employee with oil major BP's Russian joint venture has nothing to do with Moscow's strained relations with Britain, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Both men have ties to the British Council, the government's cultural arm. The arrests, which followed raids on TNK-BP's headquarters and BP's Moscow office, were interpreted by analysts as a signal that the Russian authorities had decided to target the joint venture,...

Over the years, investors in Russia have grown accustomed to the unexpected. Often, just when things seem to have calmed down, the next bombshell is right around the corner. That's surely the only way to describe the extraordinary news that a manager from TNK-BP, British Petroleum's Russian joint venture, and his brother, who works for the British Council, have been arrested and accused of spying. The arrests came less than three weeks after Russia's election of a new President, Dmitry Medvedev, which seemed to send a reassuring message of liberalism and stability (BusinessWeek.com, 3/3/08). Remarkably, they also occurred just one...

Russia targets UK interests with 'spy' arrests By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow Last Updated: 2:08am GMT 21/03/2008

Russian police have raided the Moscow offices of the oil giant BP and its joint venture TNK-BP. The searches have renewed fears that the Russian government wants greater control of foreign-owned energy assets. There is market speculation that the Kremlin would like the state-owned gas firm Gazprom to buy the stakes of BP's Russian partners in TNK-BP. Last year, TNK-BP was forced to sell its stake in the Kovykta gas field at a discount price to Gazprom. In 2006, Shell was forced to cede control of its Sakhalin gas field to Gazprom. "We will co-operate with the authorities but we...

A former Border Patrol agent and his wife, who also own the restaurant Burger Patrol, were arrested Thursday on charges of conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants.An indictment unsealed in federal court Friday alleges that on three occasions in 2007, David Cruz, 32, and Susana Lopez-Portillo De Cruz, 35, conspired to transport illegal immigrants by motor vehicle. The indictment alleges that the couple transported 10 illegal immigrants on Jan. 23 and eight on July 21. David Cruz served as a Border Patrol agent from March 2002 until he resigned in September 2007, said Greg Salinas, an agency spokesman. Salinas could not...

Foreign News Report 01-06-08 By: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS Cambio de Michoacan (Morelia, Mich.) 1/5/08 note: yesterday's report carried a single quote from Eduardo Medina Mora, Mexico's Attorney General, during an interview with the Spanish newspaper "El Pais"; what follows is a translation of the article about the interview, including more quotes and a Q&A session. "The PGR (note: the Mex. Dep't. of Justice) reports that city police protect narco" One year after Felipe Calderon's arrival at the Presidency of Mexico, the battle against drug traffic continues to be the largest challenge for the state. From his...

An off-duty Border Patrol agent shot two men after he caught them burglarizing his vehicle early Saturday morning, he told police.Gilbert Sanchez, 18, was grazed by a bullet and treated by paramedics, then arrested, said Officer Ernesto Elizondo, a spokesman for the Laredo Police Department. Another man, whose name was not released because he had not been arrested, was taken to Doctors Hospital with bullet wounds to his back and right arm, said Eloy Vega, a spokesman for the Laredo Fire Department. The injuries did not appear to be life threatening, and the man remained conscious throughout the incident, Vega...

Oil hit $100 a barrel last week, but scandal and corruption still stalk the industry, reports Iain Dey Doug Suttles, a senior executive at BP, had more than his fair share of bad news over Christmas. While most of the western world was eating turkey, the lawmakers in the area he runs for the British oil giant decided to throw their weight about. The authorities on Suttles' turf decided to press ahead with a big rise in tax on oil companies. On Boxing Day, they upheld a decision to withdraw exploration licences awarded to BP and other large oil producers....

Agents' Defense Tactics Causing Controversy SAN YSIDRO -- The Border Patrol released photos Friday of attacks on agents that they say have led to the use of pepper spray and tear gas in Mexican border neighborhoods. Officials said that escalating violence at the U.S.-Mexico border is forcing agents to take new measures, and the new tactics are creating controversy. Since October 1, there have been 90 assaults against Border Patrol agents in the San Diego area, according to officials. The violence is most common just east of the San Ysidro port of entry along a 2-mile stretch of border, in...

Jordan Andrew Davidson pleaded guilty Tuesday to the attempted killing of Jesus Humberto Aguilar, a Border Patrol agent.The 21-year-old, living in Bryan at the time of his arrest, pleaded to one count of attempted murder of an officer or employee of the U.S. and one count of using a firearm during a violent crime. He was arrested earlier this year in Nuevo Laredo after he shot Aguilar in the hand and fled across the Rio Grande. The attempted murder charge holds a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and the use of a firearm charge could add up...

A national review board created to protect the rights of federal employees has ordered the U.S. Border Patrol to reinstate an agent cleared of felony charges earlier this year. Former agent David Sipe was acquitted in January of using excessive force while arresting a group of illegal immigrants outside Peñitas in April 2000. Since then, Sipe has tried to return to work, but the Border Patrol has refused to re-hire him, his attorney, Jack Wolfe, said. “He’s basically had seven years of his life taken away from him with his trial,” he said. “And he still wants to go back...

A public-interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption says it has obtained a videotape of a Border Patrol sector chief which could shed light on the illegal immigration problem in the United States. Judicial Watch (JW) says it obtained the videotape and transcript of an August 15, 2007, town hall meeting in Laredo, Texas, through the Freedom of Information Act. JW president Tom Fitton says Laredo Sector Chief Carlos Carrillo told the audience that the Border Patrol's job is not to stop illegal aliens, narcotics, or criminals, but to keep the nation safe by stopping terrorists and terrorist weapons...

Mayor-elect Jack Wilson deserves kudos for convening his ex-officio task force on immigration this past week even before he takes office. At least it's a recognition of how serious the problem is. All of the usual suspects showed up with all of the usual comments, to wit: • City Attorney Gary Kidd said anything the city does to fight illegal immigration likely will elicit a federal or civil libertarian legal challenge. He's right, but that's exactly why the city should push. For the past 50 years, the Washington establishment has done nothing about the problem while zealously claiming exclusive jurisdiction....

After the CEO of Total (the French oil major) last week, two more CEOs of an oil major came out this Thursday to give stark warnings that mean that peak oil is happening right now. In addition, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency (the IEA), one of the main cheerleaders of the "there's more than enough oil" camp until now, is giving an extraordinarily pessimistic interview in the Financial Times, following the recent publication of their latest World Energy Outlook. Let me take you through all their affirmations. Big Oil CEOs Point To Constraints On Supply Growth HOUSTON...

A group of congressmen is demanding an investigation into the treatment of two former Border Patrol agents in prison for shooting an admitted drug dealer near the Mexican border, saying the conditions are far worse than those of suspected terrorists being held at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, and Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican — who have championed the fight for Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean — will deliver a letter detailing their concerns today to Attorney General-designate Michael B. Mukasey. More than three dozen House members have signed it. Ramos...

Everyone seems to think that ethanol is a good way to make cars greener. Everyone is wrong SOMETIMES you do things simply because you know how to. People have known how to make ethanol since the dawn of civilisation, if not before. Take some sugary liquid. Add yeast. Wait. They have also known for a thousand years how to get that ethanol out of the formerly sugary liquid and into a more or less pure form. You heat it up, catch the vapour that emanates, and cool that vapour down until it liquefies. The result burns. And when Henry Ford...

The U.S. CBP Border Patrol is joining with America's Team to help recruit more than 4,000 new agents the federal agency wants to hire before the end of 2008.Saturday afternoon, Laredo sector's Border Patrol Chief Carlos X. Carrillo announced the Laredo sector of BP is an official sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys. "The sponsorship will highlight career opportunities for men and women interested in a career with the Border Patrol," Carrillo said. "To become a Dallas Cowboy, it requires talent, hard work and dedication. To become a Border Patrol agent, it requires the same type of characteristics." The marketing campaign...

Laredo Border Patrol Chief Carlos X. Carrillo's presentation at an Aug. 15 town hall meeting will be broadcast Sunday at 10 a.m. on 'KGNS Issues 8,' Time Warner Channel 10.Carrillo's comments during that presentation about his agency's mission, reported by Laredo Morning Times, caused controversy as his comments were disseminated across the Internet. The comments drew angry response from those who favor strong laws restricting immigration as well as from a Colorado congressman. The chief has since claimed several times that the LMT article had "inaccuracies" and that he was taken out of context. He also has said the reporter...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Texas have been ordered to abbreviate national security checks at one of the nation"s busiest ports of entry to speed up travel between the United States and Mexico, according to official documents and multiple interviews with agents. An Aug. 16 memorandum from CBP El Paso field office Director Luis Garcia directs agents to limit inspections of vehicle and pedestrian border crossers as wait times escalate. The document, obtained by The Washington Times, sets new guidelines that border inspectors say undermine efforts to prevent terrorists and other criminals from entering the United States. The...

HUDSPETH COUNTY, TX. - A driver led El Paso and Hudspeth County Sheriff's deputies in a chase along the interstate Wednesday morning. Border Patrol Spokesman Doug Mosier confirms the incident involved hundreds of pounds of marijuana in a stolen 2005 GMC Yukon. The SUV came across the river approximately 1 mile east of the the port of entry. Border Patrol agents observed the vehicle and began pursuit, attempting to make an immigration stop. The vehicle failed to yield and continued on Interstate 10 West towards Fabens. The SUV then made a U-turn and began heading south, El Paso and Hudspeth...

Meager Expectations We've long become accustomed to typical behavior from given groups. For example, when it comes to bureaucracies like the EPA, no one would be shocked to find it infested with anal-retentive types so focused on what they perceive as the crucial details of their job they long-ago lost sight of the big picture. With the EPA, there's at least a potential upside. The environment is far cleaner now than back when Richard Nixon signed it into existence. In the decades since, it has made major gains over pollution and have been proven at times to be a pyrrhic...

A Border Patrol chief at one of the nation's most dangerous Southwest border crossings says the agency's mission doesn't include apprehending illegal aliens or seizing narcotics — perplexing front-line agents and angering a congressional critic of illegal immigration. "I've said it before and I'll say it again," Carlos X. Carrillo, Border Patrol chief of Laredo, Texas, told guests at a town-hall meeting Thursday. "The Border Patrol's job is not to stop illegal immigrants. The Border Patrol's job is not to stop narcotics. ... The Border Patrol's mission is not to stop criminals. "The Border Patrol's mission is to stop terrorists...