A maker of pressure control and processing systems for the oil and gas industry is closing a plant in the region and laying off 64 employees.

Houston-based Cameron International Corp. said in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notification filed with the state this month that it will permanently close its facility at 2076 Northwoods Drive in Muskegon, which is a part of the company’s Cameron Valves & Process Systems division.

The closure will result in the elimination of 64 jobs between May 1, 2020 and Jan. 15, 2021.

Positions being eliminated include machinists, assemblers, materials handlers, mechanical engineers, and logistics and support staff.

The affected employees, who are non-union, do not have bumping rights.

Cameron International is a supplier of pressure control, processing, flow control and compression systems, as well as project management and aftermarket services for the oil and gas and...

NEW YORK — Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday as fears that energy demand would take a long-term hit from the coronavirus outbreak offset prospects for more cuts in crude production from OPEC and its allies.

Brent crude slid 4 cents to $54.41 a barrel by 1:40 p.m. EST (1840 GMT) while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude lost 9 cents to $50.02.

“I think the market is still concerned that it doesn’t know the full demand destruction from the coronavirus,” said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.

Oil slid sharply over the past two weeks on concerns over the global economic impact of China’s coronavirus. In early trading, it bounced higher on the prospect of further output cuts from OPEC+, comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia.

An OPEC+ committee weighed the impact on global oil demand and economic growth of the outbreak of the coronavirus at a meeting, hearing from China’s...

NEW YORK — Oil prices bounced on Tuesday a day after falling to their lowest in more than a year, edging up on hopes that more cuts in crude production from OPEC and its allies would offset demand destruction related to the coronavirus outbreak.

Brent crude was up 65 cents, or 1.2%, to $55.10 a barrel by 11:45 a.m. EST (1645 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 52 cents, or 1%, to $50.63.

The gains marked a rebound after an extended slide over the past two weeks on concerns over the global economic impact of China’s coronavirus. Crude prices fell on Monday to their lowest in more than a year.

Sources close to the matter told Reuters on Monday that OPEC+, comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, was considering cutting crude output by a further 500,000 barrels per day (bpd).

However, the producer group could face an uphill battle to put more cuts in place so soon...

US oil tumbled another 2.8% on Monday and briefly broke below $50 a barrel for the first time since January 2019. Crude finished at $50.11 a barrel, leaving it down nearly 21% from the recent closing high of $63.27 a barrel on January 6. A bear market is frequently defined as a drop of more than 20% from previous highs.

The suit aims to void permits allowed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that opened up oil and gas exploration in Cook Inlet in southern Alaska. The suit alleges that NOAA violated the Endangered Species Act by issuing the permits without protecting Cook Island belugas. The law requires the formal 60-day notice before the agency can be sued, according to The Associated Press.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Cook Inletkeeper teamed up to send notice that they will sue NOAA.

NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released a disturbing new population estimate last week that showed whale numbers are far lower than previous estimates and their numbers are dropping rapidly, as Reuters reported.

The NMFS report estimated that only 279 beluga whales remain in Cook Inlet, a steep decline from the nearly 1,300 that lived there in 1979. The population decline has accelerated to an annual rate of 2.3 percent over the...

OTTAWA — The federal government is studying the best options for Indigenous communities to reap economic benefits from the Trans Mountain pipeline but Ottawa is not planning to sell the project while legal and political risks remain.

The Supreme Court of Canada eliminated one of those risks Thursday when it denied British Columbia the right to regulate the contents of the pipeline. At least two other significant legal challenges continue to hang over the project, making its future far from certain.

They both question the validity of the cabinet endorsement given to the expansion project last June, one citing environmental concerns and the other mistakes made during consultations with Indigenous communities. If either challenge succeeds in overturning cabinet’s approval, it would stop construction for a second time and put the entire project on extremely shaky ground.

The expansion involves building a second pipeline roughly parallel to the existing one that...