FYI: Business
BY Staff and Wire reports
Saturday, November 17, 2012
11/17/12 at 2:46 AM
Drilling rig count falls by two in state
The number of drilling rigs actively exploring for oil or natural gas in Oklahoma fell by two this week to 189, Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.
The tally is down by three from a year ago, when it stood at 192.
Nationwide, the number of active drilling units rose by three this week to 1,809, according to Houston-based Baker Hughes' website.
A year ago, the U.S. rig count was 2,001.
Of the rigs operating across the country this week, 1,390, or 77 percent of the total, were drilling for oil, while 417 were exploring for gas. Two were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago, 56 percent of active rigs were exploring for oil.
Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, benchmark crude oil rose by $1.05 to finish at $86.92 per barrel. Natural gas rose 8.3 cents to $3.9040 per 1,000 cubic feet.
FedEx, UPS probed for drug shipments
The nation's two largest shipping companies say they are targets of a criminal probe related to their dealings with online pharmacies at the center of an international crackdown on prescription drug abuse.
FedEx Corp. and UPS Inc. made the disclosures in regulatory filings over the last several weeks.
The federal investigation of them stems from a blitz against online pharmacies that was launched in 2005. Since then, dozens of arrests have been made, thousands of websites shuttered and tens of millions of dollars and pills seized worldwide as investigators continue to broaden the probe beyond the operators.
Last year, Google Inc. agreed to pay $500 million to settle federal allegations that it profited from ads for illegal online pharmacies.
A jury Thursday convicted three men of operating illegal pharmacies that used FedEx and UPS to deliver drugs without prescriptions. Seven others have been convicted in San Francisco this year.
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