Gas prices drop

Gas prices drop

GAITHERSBURG, Md.

Average gasoline prices have seen their biggest weekly drop of the year, according to fuel price information service GasBuddy.com.

The national average fell nearly 13 cents a gallon to $2.47 per gallon of unleaded gasoline.

Prices at the pump have been under pressure as oil prices have plunged 23 percent since July on concerns of economic slowdown in China and the prospects of a deal with Iran that would see sanctions eased, adding to an already well-supplied global oil market. Additionally, BP’s Whiting refinery has returned to service, after it went down unexpectedly a few weeks ago, ushering in lower prices. By Christmas, as many as half of the nation’s gas stations will charge less than $2 per gallon, while some 5,000 stations already are at that level.

As of Monday morning, Ohio’s average was about $2.35 per gallon and about $2.17 per gallon in the Youngstown area.

Cruze’s new engine

FLINT, MICH.

The next-generation, Lordstown-built Chevy Cruze is among the recipients of the Ecotec small gas engine.

Employees at Flint Engine Operations are preparing the transition to the new engine after reaching the milestone of producing a million 1.4-liter engines for the Cruze, Chevy Volt and Chevrolet Sonic since 2011.

The Volt and Cruze currently are the two recipients of the Flint-built engine. The first production engines will head to the Lordstown assembly plant for the Cruze before the end of the year. Volt production will begin later in 2016.

Talmer closing

TROY, MICH.

Talmer Bancorp Inc. announced Monday the closing of the previously announced secondary offering by which funds affiliated with WL Ross & Co. LLC agreed to sell 9,664,579 shares of their Talmer Class A common stock in an underwritten public offering. The WL Ross Funds received all of the net proceeds from the offering. Talmer repurchased 5,077,000 shares in the offering. The shares were repurchased at a price of $14.77 per share, for an aggregate purchase price of $74,987,290.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., a Stifel company, acted as the sole underwriter for the offering and re-offered 4,587,579 shares to the public at $14.95 per share.

The WL Ross Funds fully divested their ownership in Talmer’s common stock in the offering and Denny Kim, the director representative for the WL Ross Funds, resigned from the board of directors of Talmer and Talmer Bank and Trust effective Monday.

North Sea gas find

HELSINKI

Maersk Oil says it has permission from British authorities to develop a gas field off the British coast in the largest find in the North Sea in a decade.

The Danish company said Monday the Culzean field, discovered in 2008, has an estimated 250 to 300 million barrels of oil equivalent, or enough to produce about 5 percent of Britain’s total gas demand at peak production in 2020-2021.

Production is expected to start in 2019 and continue for at least 13 years.

Staff/wire reports