18 10 / 2011
UPDATE 1-US prepared if oil spills in Cuban waters-regulator
* Regulator, coast guard will inspect Repsol rigBy Roberta RamptonWASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has
issued licenses for oil spill containment and cleanup equipment
for use by U.S. companies in case of an oil spill in Cuban
waters, where a Spanish oil company will soon begin drilling,
the U.S. drilling regulator said on Tuesday.The government is evaluating the safety and emergency plans
of Repsol YPF , which plans to explore for oil
5,600 feet (1,706 meters) deep in the Gulf of Mexico later this
year when a Chinese-made rig arrives, said Michael Bromwich,
head of the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental
Enforcement.The development is a delicate environmental and political
issue for the U.S. government, which wants to protect its
coastline from oil spills while abiding by its trade embargoCuba has said it believes it may have 20 billion barrels of
oil offshore. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated the
reserves at 5 billion barrels.U.S. Coast Guard officials and the drilling regulator will
inspect the rig when it reaches Trinidad and Tobago on its way
to Cuba, Bromwich said at a hearing on Capitol Hill.The rig, called Scarabeo 9, is owned by a unit of Italian
oil company Eni SpA’s . Repsol, in partnership with
Norway’s Statoil and India’s ONGC ,
plans to drill at least one well off Cuba, then pass the rig
over to Malaysia’s state-owned oil company Petronas.”The U.S. government will immediately use all appropriate
resources and authorities to conduct response operations in the
event an oil spill from activities in Cuban waters … threaten
U.S. waters or its coastline,” Bromwich said in his written
testimony.The U.S. Commerce Department has issued licenses for
equipment such as booms, skippers and dispersants for use by US
companies in Cuban waters, and is considering applications for
licenses for other equipment, Bromwich said.The U.S. State and Treasury departments can issue licenses
for U.S. companies to help in case of a spill, Bromwich said.Bromwich’s agency was formed in the wake of the largest
offshore oil disaster in U.S. history, when an explosion on the
Deepwater Horizon rig in 2010 ruptured BP’s Macondo well,
spilling more than 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of
MexicoA commission that investigated the spill recommended the
U.S. government develop joint safety rules with Cuba for the
region, much as it did with Mexico.
Permalink 68 notes
12 10 / 2011
Thomson Reuters currency platform hit by outage
“We have identified the cause of this disruption in a
third-party database. The database vendor has issued a patch and
we are making sure extra controls are in place to ensure there
is no repeat of this occurrence,” a Thomson Reuters spokeswoman
said.The outage began at 0831 GMT and lasted until 1005 GMT. The
last major disruption to Thomson Reuters Matching was in March
2011 and lasted four hours.Major currencies for which Thomson Reuters dealing is a
liquidity provider include sterling against the U.S. dollar
, the Australian dollar , and the New Zealand dollar
.Some market participants were able to switch to the rival
ICAP-owned EBS system during the outage.”It was a bit of an issue for a while, almost like having
your legs taken away, but we quickly found another host for the
relevant currencies. I would imaging EBS had quite a good day,”
one London-based trader who asked not to be named said.Another trader said: “A lot of the algos had to pull out
because they lost a source of price-checking. It felt to us like
it was a market from 10 years ago.”Spot volumes in Thomson Reuters Dealing and Matching
together reached $176 billion in September, the second-highest
month on record. Thomson Reuters does not break out separate
figures for the two systems.
Permalink 72 notes
