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Environment & Safety

Halliburton defends itself against BP oil spill claims

Halliburton responded Wednesday to recent court filings by BP, which accused it of unfavorable results from tests on cement used to plug the leaking well in the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

US regulators issue more spill-related fines to BP

US regulators have issued additional violations to BP for its role in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, raising the level of fines that the company is likely to pay. The violations lay the foundation for civil penalties that are likely to be imposed by the federal government.

BP accuses Halliburton of destroying test results on Deepwater Horizon cement

BP accused oilfield-services giant Halliburton of destroying unfavorable results from tests on cement used to plug the leaking well in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. In a motion filed with a US court in Louisiana, BP said that Halliburton's own tests after the incident showed the cement slurry was unstable and claimed the company destroyed the results of the test and misplaced key data.

IEA says nations must act independently on climate

With little hope for significant progress on a major international climate agreement at this week's climate negotiations, nations must take it upon themselves to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change, the head of the IEA said Tuesday. To limit rising temperatures to an average of 2 degrees Celsius, global growth would have to come with just a 20% rise in emissions in the years ahead, she said.

Jacobs wins engineering on Honeywell, Sinochem venture in China

Jacobs Engineering Group will provide engineering and procurement services for the newly-formed joint venture between Honeywell and Sinochem. The joint venture, to be located in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, plans to produce HFC-245fa, a non-ozone-depleting rigid foam blowing agent used in insulation.

Qatargas picks GE technology to lower emissions

GE has signed a contract with Qatargas to supply advanced combustion technology to reduce gas turbine emissions at the Qatargas 1 Utility complex to meet new regulations. GE will provide its Dry Low NOx (DLN) 1.0 combustion system designed to achieve low emissions levels of 25 ppm for nitrogen oxide.

UOP forms alliance with Netherlands’ Twister for natural gas treatment technology

Honeywell’s UOP said Wednesday that it plans to expand its portfolio of natural gas treatment technologies through an exclusive marketing alliance with the Netherlands-based Twister B.V. UOP has also acquired a minority position in Twister B.V., the company said.

Norway agency sees "very serious shortcomings" in BP safety

BP’s efforts to monitor and respond to sudden pollution releases such as oil spills in the Norwegian Sea suffer from "very serious shortcomings" that demand immediate improvement, Norwegian regulators said. The report is the latest indication of health and safety issues at BP, which was plagued by a massive oil spill in the US Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and by numerous other accidents in recent years.

Developing nations seen making better efforts on climate change - official

Developing countries are making more effort to combat climate change and reduce carbon emissions than the developing world and that imbalance is threatening the future of the Kyoto Protocol, Venezuela's climate change representative said Tuesday.

US says nations must adhere to CO2 pact

The US said Monday that any future emission reduction accord must equally apply to industrialized countries and the major emerging economies such as China. The US, which isn't a member of the Kyoto Protocol, said it takes climate change seriously but any accord has to have equal application to the US and major emerging economies in order to be passed.