Industry News

As part of a Department of Energy (DOE) initiative to help restart the United States' nuclear industry, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been awarded almost USD$1 million. To help improve reactor safety, performance and cost competitiveness and to help solve challenges in the nuclear industry, DOE awarded USD$10.

Babcock & Wilcox Co.'s test facility for its new class of mini nuclear reactors is fully operational. The Integrated System Text facility in Bedford County, Virginia will test the mPower modular reactor's design and performance by simulating energy generated by a nuclear core through heating the reactor electrically.

Canada’s Talisman Energy has hit gas in the final well of a three well campaign on the Szczawno concession in Poland’s Baltic basin.

Brazil is evaluating a possible tax cut on ethanol production to encourage less gasoline imports by Petrobras. Currently, the gasoline sold in Brazil comes with a 20% ethanol mix but the government plans to increase the mix to 25%.

BTU Solutions, a Sugar Land, Texas-based company that specializes in demolishing power plants has bought State Line Energy, a former coal plant at the northwestern tip of Hammond, Indiana near Lake Michigan.

The Carlyle Group L.P., global asset manager and Sunoco Inc. have agreed to form a joint venture Philadelphia Energy Solutions, that will enable the historic Philadelphia refinery to continue to operate.

USD$1.7 billion in high bids out of a total USD$2.6 billion for all bids was drawn for the Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale. 593 bids on 454 tracts covering 2.4 million acres of the 39 million acres total offered were bid on by 56 operators.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation's Flow Control business segment's Electro-Mechanical Division business unit have signed a strategic alliance with Westinghouse Electric Company LLC to jointly pursue and develop business opportunities for the refurbishment of large motors for commercial nuclear power applications in North America and collaborate on new technology development.

Valener Inc. announced that Gaz Metro Limited Partnership's wholly owned subsidiary Northern New England Energy Corporation has completed the acquisition of Vermont's largest electricity distributor, Central Vermont Public Service Corporation (CVPS).

BP has agreed to sell its interests in the Jonah and Pinedale upstream operations in Wyoming to LINN Energy, LLC.