Former BP staff found not guilty
NEW YORK: A former BP supervisor was found not guilty by a New Orleans jury of a single pollution charge stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster that killed 11 people. Robert Kaluza was the last of four people who had faced charges in connection with the disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in US history. Kaluza, along with another former well-site manager, was accused of ignoring warning signs and botching safety testing that resulted in the rupture and explosion of BP’s Macondo well, sending millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Delek says cuts production
HOUSTON: Delek US Holdings said that production was cut across its two-plant crude oil refining system by 10 to 12 per cent due to poor refining margins caused by huge surpluses of gasoline.
Delek operates an 83,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in El Dorado, Arkansas, and a 60,000 bpd plant in Tyler, Texas. “We are obviously optimiSing the system,” said Delek Chairman and Chief Executive Uzi Yemin during a conference call with Wall Street analysts. “In January and part of February, you can assume 10 per cent, call it 12 per cent, down from an economic standpoint.”
Pemex worker dies in fire
MEXICO CITY: A worker was killed after a fire broke out at a petrochemical plant in southeastern Mexico jointly controlled by Mexican state oil giant Pemex and chemicals maker Mexichem, Pemex said. In a statement, Pemex said Jaime Cisneros was badly burned by the fire, which took place in the incinerator area of Petroquimica Mexicana de Vinilo (PMV) in the Gulf state of Veracruz. He died in the hospital.
Halliburton to slash 5,000 more jobs
HOUSTON: Oilfield services provider Halliburton, pressured by a prolonged slump in crude oil prices, will further slash its workforce by about 8 per cent, or by 5,000 jobs, company spokeswoman Emily Mir told Reuters.
The more than 70 per cent fall in global crude prices since mid-2014 has led to a series of job cuts and additional cost-cutting efforts from several companies including the world’s largest oilfield services provider, Schlumberger.
Halliburton has already reduced its global headcount by 25 per cent, or almost 22,000 employees, since 2014.
