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Derailed Oil Train in Ontario Was Within Speed Limit

A train that derailed in northern Ontario just over a week ago—igniting and spilling more than 6,000 barrels of oil—was traveling at a restricted speed and carrying oil in structurally enhanced tank cars, Canadian investigators said Monday. Initial findings on the accident from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada suggest it bore stark similarities to a fiery derailment that occurred days later in West Virginia . The findings are likely to add to concerns that recent regulatory steps to make the transport of oil by rail don’t go far enough. In the Ontario accident , 29 railcars derailed, with 21 sustaining fire damage, the TSB said. The train, operated by Canadian National Railway Co. , was traveling at 38 miles an hour at the time of the derailment, under a 40-mile-per-hour speed restriction, the agency said. The train was made up of tank cars built to the new CPC-1232 […]

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Areva Warns of $5.6 Billion Loss

ENLARGE Delays on the Olkiluoto-3 nuclear power plant in Finland have contributed to Areva’s losses. The power plant was scheduled to come online in 2013. Photo: Associated Press PARIS—Engineering firm Areva SA said it expects its 2014 net loss to widen to about €4.9 billion, or $5.6 billion, from a year earlier, as delays to a reactor project in Finland and low demand for nuclear projects continue to hammer the company. The French firm’s latest profit warning follows three successive years of reported losses stemming from delays to a nuclear reactor project in Finland and a big write-off after a mine acquisition went sour. The company was also hampered by the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, when many utilities shelved or delayed plans for nuclear power plant construction. Areva, which is 85%-owned by the French state, on Monday said preliminary financial information shows a full-year net […]

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Kremlin questions Moody’s rating downgrade

Ukrainian conflict, low oil prices, putting pressure on Russian economy, though Kremlin defends policies amid Moody’s credit downgrade. UPI/Ivan Vakolenko Finance Ministry criticized a credit downgrade from ratings agency Moody’s as pessimistic and out of step with developments in the oil-laden economy. "I suspect that in making this decision to lower the rating the agency was guided by political factors above all," Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Saturday. "I believe that Moody’s rating is not just overly negative, but also based on an extremely pessimistic forecast, unparalleled these days." Moody’s said the security situation in Ukraine and the weak market for crude oil was diminishing Russia’s economic strength. The rating’s agency last week said the outlook for Russia was negative, leading to a downgrade in the government bond rating. "The risk is rising, although still very low, that the international response to the military conflict in Ukraine triggers a […]

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Ukraine military says cannot withdraw heavy weapons as attacks persist

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s military said on Monday it could not start withdrawing heavy weapons from the frontline in the east as pro-Russian separatists had not stopped attacking government positions despite a ceasefire deal. Over the weekend, rebels and the Ukrainian military said they had reached an agreement to begin the process of withdrawing weapons, as required by the ceasefire deal that came into effect on Feb. 15. Violence has lessened significantly in recent days, but rebels twice shelled government troops overnight, spokesman Anatoly Stelmakh said. "Given that the positions of Ukrainian servicemen continue to be shelled, there can not yet be any talk of pulling back weapons," spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said in a televised briefing. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing by Alessandra Prentice)

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Norway faces up to prospect of North Sea slowdown

Norway’s economic model has long been much-admired. The Scandinavian country is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, thanks to 40 years of North Sea oil production. The global financial crisis barely registered amid decades of almost nonstop growth. More On this topic IN Europe But after a plunge in oil prices, policy makers and analysts in Oslo are now cautioning that this gilded era is coming to an end . “We cannot expect to grow continuously as we have over the past 10-15 years,” Øystein Olsen, Norway’s central bank governor, told the Financial Times. “We are going to be more in the same boat as our neighbouring countries.” Siv Jensen, Norwegian finance minister, added: “The past couple of decades are not to be continued.” Western Europe’s biggest oil producer is still a long way from crisis, the same policy makers note. The economy grew 3 per cent […]

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Archer Hit By US Shale Rig Squeeze, Targets At Least 10% Cost Cuts

OSLO, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Oil services firm Archer expects to cut its costs by at least 10 percent through an 11 percent headcount reduction, as it adapts to a weaker market in the North Sea and the U.S., the firm said on Monday. Archer, which offers drilling and well intervention services, is especially hit by the downturn in the U.S. onshore market where the shale rig count has fallen by more than 500, or 30 percent, since the end of November. Archer expects this decline to continue through the first quarter and into the second quarter, it said on a conference call with investors. When asked if the firm’s North American revenues would drop at the same pace as the rig count, Chief Executive David King said that was a fair prediction, which would be "not far off". The onshore shale rig count dropped dramatically after OPEC kept […]

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North Sea Oil Production Continues to Slide

ENLARGE British North Sea oil production fell 1.1% in 2014 compared with the previous year, an industry report said Tuesday. That is down around 70% since the North Sea’s peak in 1999. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images LONDON—Oil production in the British section of the North Sea declined in 2014 amid rising costs, high taxes and low oil prices , underscoring the need for more investment and exploration there, an industry association said Tuesday. The report by Oil & Gas U.K., a lobbying group, comes as the oil industry has stepped up pressure on the U.K. government to cut taxes and streamline the complex regime for the oil and gas sector in its March budget amid the North Sea’s decline. British North Sea production fell by 1.1% in 2014 compared with the previous year to 1.42 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, the report said. That is down around […]

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North Sea oil and gas drains cash at fastest rate since 1970s

Oil rig Spending on new North Sea oil and gas projects is to plunge by a third this year, industry operators warned on Tuesday, with the basin draining cash at its fastest rate since the 1970s. In a bleak assessment of Britain’s future as an energy producer, Oil & Gas UK, which represents the offshore industry, says that rising costs, heavy taxes and a near-50 per cent slide in crude prices could lead to accelerated decommissioning of older fields. More On this topic IN Oil & Gas “Without sustained investment in new and existing fields, critical infrastructure will disappear, taking with it important North Sea hubs, effectively sterilising areas of the basin and leaving oil and gas in the ground,” said Malcolm Webb, chief executive of the group. Another couple of years of low prices “could take a terrible toll on the North Sea”. Its annual survey of operators, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple