Industry News

Due to inadequate margins resulting in financial losses, Valero Energy Corp. is suspending operations at its Aruba refinery. Valero, a Texas-based independent oil refiner, acquired the 235,000bpd refinery in 2004 and is considering operating a terminal and storage facility at the site.

Science Applications International Corporation subsidiary SAIC Energy, Environment & Infrastructure, LLC has agreed on an environmental services contract with Chevron Corporation subsidiary, Chevron Environmental Management Company.

The Brazilian National Petroleum Agency approved BP’s farm-in to four deepwater exploration and production concessions in the Brazilian equatorial margin.

    John A. Catsimatidis, chief executive and chairman of United Refining Energy Corp.

    The California Public Utilities Commission approved a resolution that will order three investor-owned utilities in California to enter a contract with Calpine Corporation’s Sutter Energy Center within 30 days.

    BP has signed an agreement with the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley (ALOV) to lease approximately 84,000acres in Trumbull County, Ohio in the Utica/Point Pleasant shale basin.

Westinghouse Electric Co. will be applying to the Department of Energy for up to USD452 million for the rapid development and deployment of the company’s small modular reactor technology in Cranberry, Pennsylvania.

    The Tennessee Valley Authority is taking steps to help the population nervous of nuclear power following last year’s reactor disaster in Japan.

    Oil producers in North America are hoping to ease the disconnect in the crude markets by addressing the reversal of the Seaway pipeline to run to refineries nest the Gulf of Mexico from the central United States.

Exelon Corporation and Constellation Energy have completed their merger, effective 12 March 2012. The merger creates one of the largest retail customer bases and the leading U.S. competitive energy provider with one of the cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets in the industry.