The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers petitioned the US Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its final rule increasing the biomass-based diesel minimum for 2013. EPA raised the amount to 1.28 billion gal from 1 billion gal on Sept. 14.

Tests performed by ASTM International have determined that bitumen-derived crude oil is no more corrosive in transmission pipelines than other crudes.

Divers recovered a body Nov. 17 near an oil platform that caught on fire Nov. 15 in the Gulf of Mexico about 20 miles offshore Grand Isle, La., said the US Coast Guard and the rig's owner, Black Elk Energy of Houston.

The National Transportation Safety Board listed enhancing pipeline safety as one of the top 10 US transportation challenges for 2013. The US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Board and several oil and gas industry groups responded that they are already working hard to meet that challenge.

The US Environmental Protection Agency denied requests for waivers to the federal Renewable Fuels Standard after rejecting suggestions that not doing so would pose significant economic hardship to drought-stricken agricultural operations.

US Coast Guard officials said an oil production platform offshore Louisiana had exploded and caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico, Associated Press reported Nov. 16.

BP PLC and the US Justice Department reached a settlement regarding some criminal aspects of the deepwater Macondo well blowout but US prosecutors continue pursuing civil claims that BP committed “gross negligence” when nearly 5 million bbl of crude oil escaped from the well during 2010.

US President Barack Obama’s decision on the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project could be the first major policy test in the president’s second term, American Petroleum Institute officials said.

BP PLC on Nov. 15 announced resolution of criminal and securities claims by the US government against the supermajor related to the April 2010 deepwater Macondo well blowout, which resulted in a massive spill off Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fuels made wholly from Canadian oil-sands feedstocks emit 4-18% more greenhouse gases (GHGs) on a wells-to-tailpipe basis than those made from average crude oil refined in the US, according to IHS, Cambridge, Mass.

The US Bureau of Land Management proposed an oil shale and tar sands research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) plan for land it administers in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The proposal involves less acreage than one developed in 2008, and represents a significant improvement, the Natural Resources Defense Council said in response.