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International news for oil and gas professionals

Repsol YPF SA, which is scheduled to begin exploratory drilling in Cuban waters, has offered US agencies an opportunity to inspect the semisubmersible rig and its equipment before it arrives at the well site, US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director Michael R. Bromwich said on Oct. 18.

The joint investigation by the two federal entities responsible for offshore safety enforcement and environmental protection found that numerous system deficiencies and acts of omission by Transocean Ltd. and the Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible rig's crew reduced opportunities to limit the April 20, 2010, Macondo well incident's damage, a US Coast Guard official told a congressional committee.

The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) issued an initial round of citations resulting from the Joint Investigation Team's final report on the April 2010 Macondo well blowout and crude oil spill.

The Oct. 13 US House Natural Resources Committee hearing nominally was about the Joint Investigation Team's final report on the 2010 Macondo well accident and spill.

No oil is leaking from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig or from a riser on the seabed near the semisubmersible, which sank last year following the Macondo well blowout, Transocean Ltd. said in an Oct. 12 news release.

The American Petroleum Institute periodically briefs and trains state officials and regulators to help them better understand hydraulic fracturing and its importance to shale oil and natural gas development, API executives said during an Oct. 13 conference call with reporters.

Norway's Statoil ASA reported it will acquire Austin-based independent Brigham Exploration Co. for $4.4 billion in a merger agreement.

Kinder Morgan Inc. reported it will acquire all outstanding shares of El Paso Corp. in a transaction creating the largest midstream and the fourth-largest energy company in North America, with an enterprise value of $94 billion and 80,000 miles of pipelines, the companies said. The total purchase price, including assumption of debt outstanding at El Paso and debt outstanding at El Paso Pipeline Partners LP (EPB), is $38 billion.

Encana Corp. and Pembina Pipeline Corp. have signed an agreement under which Pembina will invest about $230 million (Can.) to expand processing and liquids extraction capacities at Encana's Resthaven natural gas processing plant in west-central Alberta.

BP expects Devenick to come on stream in 2012 and have a peak production of 200 MMscfd of gas in 2013, which is about 3% of UK gas needs.

Wintershall Holding GMBH, which shut down its Libyan desert oil fields in February for security reasons, has resumed production as agreed with Libyan National Oil Corp.

The oil and gas industry may be wondering about US President Barack Obama's decision to send troops to Uganda and neighboring states to combat the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and kill or capture its leader, Joseph Kony.

Saudi Arabia strongly condemned what it called the "sinful and abhorrent" attempt to assassinate its ambassador to Washington, a day after the US claimed Iran was behind the plot.