BP North America Inc. (BPNA) agreed to pay an $8 million fine and spend more than $400 million to install state-of-the-art air pollution controls at its Whiting, Ind., refinery to settle charges that it violated the Clean Air Act, the US Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency jointly announced.

Much of the public concern about possible water contamination from unconventional oil and gas operations is misdirected, David Blackmon, director of government affairs for El Paso Corp., told a Mayer Brown LLP energy conference in Houston on May 23.

Oil prices fell May 23 on the perception government leaders attending a discordant European Union summit in Brussels lack the political will to resolve the international economic problems that are undermining markets.

The Texas Railroad Commission and the TRC’s Eagle Ford Task Force plan to study whether existing state regulations on flaring and venting associated with oil and natural gas operations need to be updated, Commissioner David Porter said in a May 23 news release from his Austin office.

Petrolympic Ltd., Toronto, plans to form a joint venture with Energex Petroleum Inc., Windsor, Ont.,  to acquire 50% indirect working interest in Energex’s Michigan pinnacle reef properties. Energex is working towards a public listing in Toronto.

Bakken Hunter LLC, a subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources Corp., closed a $312 million acquisition of Baytex Energy Corp.’s nonoperated interests in North Dakota.

Oil prices inched higher most of the day but retreated in late trading May 22, with crude down 1% in the New York market among festering financial problems in the Euro-zone.