FYI: Business
BY Staff and Wire reports
Saturday, November 24, 2012
11/24/12 at 3:23 AM
U.S. rig count rises, but state rig count falls
The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose this week by eight, to 1,817, while the count in Oklahoma dropped by one to 188.
Texas-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. reported Wednesday that 1,388 rigs were exploring for oil and 428 were searching for gas. One was listed as miscellaneous. A year ago, Baker Hughes counted 2,000 rigs, with 197 in Oklahoma. The tally, normally released on Friday, was advanced this week because of Thanksgiving.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Louisiana gained five rigs, Pennsylvania gained four, Texas gained two and Alaska and New Mexico each gained one.
California lost three rigs while Arkansas and Colorado each lost one. North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming were unchanged.
The rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
Burn victim from oil platform accident dies
The Philippine ambassador says one of the men critically burned in an offshore oil platform fire has died in Louisiana.
The ambassador, Jose L. Cuisia Jr., says in a news release that 49-year-old Avelino Tajonera died Friday, shortly after his wife and three children arrived from Manila.
Three other men remain hospitalized. The ambassador says their families are in Baton Rouge.
The explosion and fire Nov. 16 also killed 42-year-old Ellroy Corporal, whose body was found in the waters nearby. The search for another man, 28-year-old Jerome Malagapo, was called off.
The embassy quotes Consul General Herrera-Lim as saying three Filipino workers who survived the fire are back in Manila after giving statements to federal authorities investigating the fire.
Generic Lipitor product from India recalled
Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc. has recalled dozens of lots of its generic version of cholesterol drug Lipitor because some may contain tiny glass particles, the latest in a string of manufacturing deficiencies that once led U.S. regulators to bar imports of the Indian company's medicines.
Ranbaxy, a subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., India's biggest drugmaker, is operating under increased scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because of quality lapses at multiple Ranbaxy factories over the past several years. The FDA also has alleged the company lied about test results for more than two dozen of its generic drugs several years ago.
On Friday, Ranbaxy posted a notice on its U.S. website, saying it's recalling 10-, 20- and 40-milligram doses of tablets of atorvastatin calcium. That's generic Lipitor, the cholesterol fighter that reigned for years as the world's top-selling drug.
The recall includes 41 lots of the drug, nearly all with 90 pills per bottle, but three lots contain 500 pills per bottle. It's unclear how many bottles are in each lot, but medicine batches typically contain many thousands of pills. The 80-milligram strength tablets are not affected.
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