Royal Bank of Canada has acquired the Athena Energy Group, a natural gas supplier in Quebec. The acquisition expands RBC Capital Markets’ existing business, which offers structured pricing for natural gas supply, from Ontario into Quebec.

Allegro Development Corp., a provider of energy trading and risk management (ETRM) software, has appointed Steven Ferrigno as managing director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Mark Weaser as managing director of Asia-Pacific (APAC).

Ag Energy Co-operative Ltd., Ontario’s largest agricultural energy co-operative, has chosen RiskAdvisory’s SAS BookRunner v12 commodity trading and risk management (CTRM) software solution to expand its analytics, reporting and credit risk management capabilities.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has called on South African energy giant Sasol to immediately declare an end to its business in Iran and take the steps necessary to complete such an exit. The statement was issued on Jan. 4.

The values of the crude-to-gas ratio and the frac spread have fallen 50% from their highs this year. Today we ask whether the frac spread will continue its fall next year and beyond.

Calgary-based CEC North Star Energy Ltd., a private heavy oil company with substantial oil sands lease holdings in the Peace River block of northern Alberta, has updated the findings of its geological analysis and is continuing to de-risk the project.

In the largest settlement in US history, BP Plc (NYSE: BP) has settled criminal charges with the US Department of Justice in relation to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident that killed 11 workers and sent millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Fifteen years ago, only 10% of large oil and gas projects ran more than 50% over budget.  Last year, that figure nearly tripled to 28%.  According to a Schlumberger Business Consulting report, this budget busting trend is expected to worsen by 2015.

Effective at the close of business on October 12, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is converting its energy swaps contracts into regulated futures  contracts. Additionally, the CME Group’s Clearport energy contracts will be available for trading as swaps or futures.