Cenovus Energy to buy remaining stake in Toledo refinery from BP for $300 million

CALGARY — Cenovus Energy Inc. has signed a US$300-million deal that it says marks another step forward in its long-term strategy to integrate its heavy oil production with refining capability

The Calgary-based oil company announced Monday it has reached a deal with British energy giant BP to buy the remaining 50 per cent stake in the BP-Husky Toledo Refinery in Ohio. The two companies have also signed a multi-year product supply agreement.

Cenovus has owned the other 50 per cent of the Toledo refinery since its combination with Husky Energy in 2021.

When the transaction closes before the end of the year, Cenovus will take over operations of the refinery, which is currently operated by BP. The more than 580 employees at the Toledo refinery will become employees of Cenovus.

“This refinery is a strategic addition to our Downstream business,” said Keith Chiasson, Cenovus’s executive vice-president, Downstream, in a release.

“It has provided economic opportunities and critical energy products to the people of Ohio and surrounding areas for decades, and we look forward to continuing that tradition once we assume full ownership of the facility.”


The BP-Husky Toledo refinery can process up to 160,000 barrels of crude oil each day, and provides the U.S. Midwest with gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane, asphalt and other products.

The Toledo Refinery recently completed a major, once-in five-years turnaround, Cenovus said, which was funded through the joint venture and aimed at improving operational reliability. Cenovus said assuming full ownership of the facility will provide the company with opportunities to optimize its heavy oil value chain by integrating it with its upstream assets.

The transaction will bring Cenovus' total refining capacity to 740,000 barrels per day, and also brings with it the longer-term potential to connect the Toledo Refinery with Cenovus' U.S. refining network, the company said.

"This acquisition is consistent with (Cenovus') strategy and was completed at an attractive price," said Scotiabank analyst Jason Bouvier in a note to clients. "This transaction also includes a supply agreement for BP’s retail locations."

Monday's announcement comes on the heels of a separate, previously announced deal between Cenovus and BP. In June, BP said it would sell its interest in the Sunrise oilsands project in Alberta to Cenovus and would acquire Cenovus' interest in the Bay du Nord project offshore Newfoundland and Labrador.

Following the close of that deal, also expected in 2022, the British energy company will no longer have interests in oilsands production and will shift its focus to future potential offshore growth in Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 8, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CVE)

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG
‘We’re not pigs’: Protestors demanding trash bin shut down Point Douglas street Monday

Sam Thompson - Yesterday - GLOBAL NEWS

A demonstration that blocked traffic on Higgins Avenue near Anabella Street has ended.

© Global NewsProtest spokesman Robert Russell.

A spokesperson for a group of people living in an encampment in the Point Douglas area said they shut down the street Monday morning in an attempt to pressure the city into giving them a garbage bin.

Video: Winnipeg police respond to protestors demanding trash bin for Higgins Avenue encampment

Robert Russell told Global News that the group has reached out to the city for a place to dispose of trash and keep the encampment clean and sanitary, but so far nothing has been done.

If the city didn't respond by 3 p.m., Russell said, the group intended to block traffic again

"We're not pigs. We're just like everyone else. We might be homeless, or we live in our tents, but we're not out here to be pigs.

"The health hazard alone, with the rodents feasting on the garbage — it's not healthy," he said.

"People are driving by taking pictures and thinking that we're pigs, and it's not our fault. We're waiting for the city to put up the bin so we can get rid of the garbage."

Read more:

North Point Douglas residents voice concern over growing encampments

WON'T NOT CAN'T

The city sent a release out Wednesday afternoon saying, they won't be providing a permanent garbage dumpster to the encampment.

"All parties involved, including community outreach organizations, recognize that a permanent bin is not a feasible solution here; experience has shown us that unlocked bins placed in a public space attract unintended and unwanted users, like those seeking to illegally dump renovation waste," a city of Winnipeg spokesperson told Global News.

The statement went on to say it would consider regularly scheduled waste pick-up or one of many other options.

Russell said while it's not the outcome the group had wanted, he believes it is a step in the right direction.

"I'm glad to hear that they're willing to talk about a solution, that's all we wanted was a solution to the problem."

Russell said the group has been assured that the city would help, but as there's been no action so far.

"This is an election year. We're taxpayers. We also vote. This is a social issue that needs to be addressed."

"Routine pick up would be great, we would love that, because no one wants us to keep garbage around here, it's terrible, it's an eyesore."

Video: Residents Concerned Over Growing Homeless Encampment In Point Douglas Greenspace

SAWHNEY IS A RED TORY

Pitt leaves Sawhney UCP leadership campaign, citing need to realign with constituents

Jason Herring - Yesterday 

Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt is leaving her role as chair of Rajan Sawhney’s UCP leadership campaign over what she describes as a need to realign with her constituents.


© Provided by Calgary HeraldCalgary North-East UCP MLA Rajan Sawhney (right) launches her campaign for the leadership of the United Conservative Party next to Airdrie UCP MLA Angela Pitt at Violet King Henry Plaza at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, on Monday, June 13, 2022.

Pitt announced the departure in a Facebook post Sunday morning, in which she praised Sawhney but said she needed to refocus her own efforts.

“It is time for me to step back into alignment with my constituents and my values,” Pitt wrote. “I believe in a strong Alberta that will both stand up to Ottawa and respect individual freedoms.”

Sawhney, the UCP’s Calgary-North East MLA and a former minister of transportation and community and social services, has positioned herself as a moderate candidate in the ongoing UCP leadership race.

Her platform includes an independent inquiry into Alberta’s COVID-19 response , and she took aim at fellow hopeful Danielle Smith in the first leadership debate — particularly Smith’s proposed Alberta Sovereignty Act, which would aim to allow Alberta to ignore federal government laws and policies.

Some of those stances appeared to clash with Pitt’s views, as a vocal opponent of Alberta’s COVID-19 restrictions and a supporter of the province pursuing status as a sovereign jurisdiction within Canada .

In her Facebook post, Pitt said she is focusing efforts on local issues, including Airdrie’s “inadequate” urgent-care facility, which is facing overnight closures on weekends , and Alberta’s struggling EMS system.

“We must remember why we are here and what needs to be done,” Pitt said. “I will do my part to ensure the conservative movement in Alberta remains united as we rebuild a free and prosperous future for our province.”

The Sawhney campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Postmedia.

A mid-July Leger poll, conducted before candidates held their first debate, showed minimal support for Sawhney , polling at zero per cent. Former Wildrose party leaders Smith (22 per cent) and Brian Jean (20 per cent), as well as former Finance Minister Travis Toews (15 per cent) led the pack, while 31 per cent of respondents to that poll were undecided.

Rounding out the field of leadership candidates are former cabinet ministers Leela Aheer and Rebecca Schulz, and Independent MLA Todd Loewen.

Those who wish to vote in the leadership contest must purchase UCP memberships, which can be done until Aug. 12. The vote for the new leader takes place Oct. 6.

jherring@postmedia.com

Twitter: @jasonfherring

Health agency issues order after 42 beds found in Banff home

CBC/Radio-Canada -

Alberta Health Services has issued an order against the owners of a home in Banff, Alta., after more than 40 beds and mattresses were found inside.

AHS says an inspection at 321 Squirrel Street found conditions that "are or may become injurious or dangerous to the public health."

It also said the home's 16-person maximum occupancy was exceeded — 42 beds and/or mattresses were found in the residence, and a tenant was sleeping in a basement room with no window.

The owner of the house has been ordered to make numerous repairs, remove the excess beds and mattresses and accommodate no more than 16 tenants.

Darren Enns, director of planning and development for the Town of Banff, says the town has a large proportion of young service sector workers and their household populations tend to be higher than an average Alberta household.

"However, I would say that this example is on the extreme end, and it's not something that we see too often."

He said they received several complaints about the house, and a multi-agency group that includes town workers, the fire department and AHS had visited the home multiple times over three years.

Cindy Heisler has been helping people find places to live in the Bow Valley for nine years through her prominent Facebook group, Bow Valley Home Finder, which has more than 25,000 members.

She said the Squirrel Street property had been listed on the page years ago but was removed after she heard from people who had lived there.

© Radio-CanadaCBC News has previously reported that many long-time locals and new Banffites are struggling to find housing this year.

She said people who lived at the property told her they had been yelled at by one of the listed owners for coming home too late, or told they couldn't watch TV because it was too loud.

Heisler said a lot of "ski bums" come to live in Banff for about six months, and learn to deal with whatever accommodation they can afford.

"And there's nobody to look out for them to make sure they know their rights," she said.

"It's not the only situation in Banff. I've come across at least half a dozen others similar to this."
'Doubling of numbers'

Following the AHS order, there are now more people looking for accommodation, Heisler said, which adds to the hundreds of people already looking.

"I'm seeing the doubling of numbers. Every time I check my phone, there's another 15 people who want to join the group. So I'm probably approving 50 people a day instead of 25, like I was last month," she said.

She says that in addition to affordable housing, temporary housing needs to be set up for those who are staying less than a year.

CBC News previously reported that many long-time locals and new Banffites are struggling to find housing this year.

In a statement provided to CBC News, the Town of Banff said more affordable housing is needed in the community, despite some affordable housing options being added in the past few years, including the Ti'nu apartment complex and the Aster condos, which are under construction.

Many private organizations continue to redevelop sites in town for their staff housing, according to the statement. The Banff YWCA is also constructing more units at its affordable housing complex.

"We will continue to work with the provincial agency to monitor the housing situation in Banff and to ensure landlords comply with our stringent occupancy and safety requirements," the statement read.

The statement said the number of businesses requiring workers in the past decade has remained relatively constant. The Town of Banff has not increased in size since incorporation in 1990 and all developable land is in use.

"As a result, it is challenging to add housing in the townsite."

"The community is adjusting to the return of more tourism and the increase in workers needed to meet demand."

Report shows poisoning behind 25 per cent of unhoused people's ER visits in Alberta

Madeline Smith - Yesterday - EDMONTON JOURNAL

A new report from the University of Alberta’s Injury Prevention Centre is crunching the numbers behind injuries that land people experiencing homelessness in emergency rooms.


© Provided by Edmonton Journal

Laurence Braun-Woodbury poses for a photo near homeless encampments in downtown Edmonton, Friday Aug. 5, 2022. A new report from the University of Alberta's Injury Prevention Centre breaks down what kinds of injuries most often bring unhoused people to emergency rooms across the province.

The analysis of Alberta Health Services data looks at more than 11,600 instances in 2019 and 2020 where unhoused people went to an Alberta ER with an injury. Researchers broke down the causes of those injuries, including poisoning, violence, falls, environmental factors and self-harm.

The leading cause of injury was poisoning, accounting for one-quarter of all ER visits. Those injuries are broadly defined as a case when a substance is taken “incorrectly,” whether that means in combination with another drug that could be dangerous or at a dose that’s too high.

Related

Record-breaking 1,758 Albertans died of a drug poisoning in 2021

Deaths due to homelessness in Edmonton up by 70 per cent last year: advocacy group

Opioid poisonings would be included in this category, reflecting the ongoing overdose crisis that kills thousands of Albertans each year, and which street outreach workers have stressed is a serious danger for unhoused people struggling with addictions.

Nearly three-quarters of unhoused people who came to the ER due to poisoning were men, averaging 1,035 visits per year.

Over the time period studied in the report, violence accounted for 19 per cent of the injuries that brought unhoused people to emergency departments, fall-related injuries made up 13 per cent and environmental injuries — like insect stings and exposure to extreme weather — added up to seven per cent of the total.

Injury Prevention Centre associate director Kathy Belton said people living on the streets or in shelters are more at risk for many health issues, and to her knowledge, a specific analysis of their ER visits has never been done in Alberta before.


“Understanding what’s actually happening in this population is the first step in coming up with initiative to address it,” she said.

Belton said the results also raise more questions, like what happened in more than 2,000 documented instances of a patient leaving the ER before their treatment was completed. That category accounts for 17 per cent of the way ER visits ended.

“We don’t know why they left. Was it the fact that they faced stigma? Was it too long in accessing health care? … If they’re leaving in that high of a percentage, then something must be wrong in our ERs that we’re not addressing,” Belton said.


© David Bloom

A homeless man sits in a wheelchair in downtown Edmonton, Friday Aug. 5, 2022. A new report from the University of Alberta’s Injury Prevention Centre breaks down what kinds of injuries most often bring unhoused people to emergency rooms across the province.

The Bissell Centre was also consulted for the injury report, and Laurence Braun-Woodbury, the organization’s director of service integration and advocacy called the results “validating.”

“It confirmed so much of what we see year in and year out as service providers,” he said.

He added stigma and trauma play a role in the difficulty many unhoused people have accessing medical care, and that’s likely a factor for many people who leave an emergency department before their treatment is finished.

But he also has questions about the 61 per cent of ER visits that were recorded as ending with the patient being discharged, and whether those people felt they got adequate care.

Both Braun-Woodbury and Belton underlined the finding that the vast majority of environmental-related injuries were due to cold exposure, resulting in issues like frostbite. Most injuries at a broad scale are preventable, and in this case, Braun-Woodbury said if people had options for safe housing and didn’t feel compelled to sleep rough during the winter, those injuries could be avoided.

“People don’t have to live lives that are vulnerable to these sorts of health crises,” he said.

“This human cost, all this suffering, and systemic cost associated with accessing health services at this scale is ultimately preventable, and can be prevented through tools like housing first policies and supportive housing units.”

masmith@postmedia.com
@meksmith

Public support for Trans Mountain pipeline drops slightly in Alberta: poll

Public support in Alberta for the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline has waned since 2020, but a substantial majority of Albertans still support the project, a new poll from Research Co. suggests.

A pipe yard servicing government-owned oil pipeline operator Trans Mountain is seen in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada on June 7, 2021.

Michael Rodriguez - Sunday

According to polling data, almost seven of every 10 Albertans, 69 per cent, support the federally owned pipeline project, down five percentage points from a November 2020 poll.

The federal government bought the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion in 2018, with the cost to finish the expansion — set to increase the capacity of the pipeline from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels a day — then estimated around $7.4 billion. Since then, the project — running from Edmonton to the B.C. coast — has faced several hurdles, including legal pushback from Indigenous groups, protests that spurred multiple arrests and a skyrocketing price tag, estimated in February to be around $21.4 billion.

Calgary showed the least support in Alberta for the expansion, with 66 per cent still professing favourable views of the project. In Edmonton, 72 per cent of residents favour the project, and that number is around 70 per cent for other areas of the province.

Polling data suggests a slim majority of B.C. residents are now in favour of the expansion, 51 per cent, though that number has risen by six points since 2021. Most of the opposition comes from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, expressing 50 and 41 per cent support, respectively. In contrast, support from residents of other areas of the province ranges between 58 and 66 per cent.

“The proportion of British Columbians who want the provincial government to do anything necessary to ensure that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion does not happen dropped from 41 per cent in October 2021 to 33 per cent in July 2022,” says Mario Canseco, president of Research Co. “In Alberta, 25 per cent of residents” — an increase of three per cent since 2020 — “share the same point of view.”

Most Albertans and British Columbians think the expansion will bring hundreds of jobs to their province — 78 and 71 per cent, respectively. Still, 61 per cent in Alberta and 51 per cent in B.C. are disappointed in the federal government’s handling of the project.

Around 28 per cent of Albertans believe the TMX expansion threatens the health and safety of residents, and 40 per cent of B.C. residents share that view. Less than half of residents of both provinces think the expansion will help lower gas prices — 40 per cent in Alberta and 37 per cent in B.C.

In addition, just under half of British Columbians, 46 per cent, think it’s time to take another look at the quashed Enbridge Northern Gateway proposal, which would see the construction of a new pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s north coast for export by sea to Asian markets.

Research Co. said its results come from an online study involving 800 adults in Alberta and 800 in B.C., conducted July 29 and 30, with the results weighted based on census data. The firm said the margin of error is +/- 3.5 percentage points for each province, 19 times out of 20.

mrodriguez@postmedia.com

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Trump real estate appraiser hands over thousands of documents to N.Y. AG in civil probe

Dareh Gregorian - Yesterday 

A commercial real estate firm held in contempt of court for failing to hand over records on its appraisals of several Trump Organization properties to New York's attorney general has turned over nearly 36,000 documents, court filings show.

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron had found Cushman & Wakefield in contempt last month for not producing documents in state Attorney General Letitia James' civil probe into the Trump Organization's business practices and ordered the firm to pay a $10,000-a-day fine until it complied.

In a letter to the judge late Friday, James' office said it has now "received Cushman’s production, which amounts to about 35,867 documents since entry of this court’s contempt order." The letter said the attorney general's office was joining with Cushman in asking the judge to "dissolve the contempt order and hold any contempt purged, without any fines due or owing."


© John MinchilloThe Seven Springs, a property owned by former President Donald Trump, on Feb. 23, 2021, in Mount Kisco, N.Y. (John Minchillo / AP file)

Cushman's and James' spokespeople did not immediately respond requests for comment.

James’ office is considering whether to file a civil suit against former President Donald Trump and his company over their business practices, and has said in court filings that it has “uncovered substantial evidence establishing numerous misrepresentations in Mr. Trump’s financial statements provided to banks, insurers, and the Internal Revenue Service.”

In court filings, the attorney general's office said it also discovered "serious problems" with some of Cushman's appraisals for the Trump Organization over the years, including 40 Wall Street, his Seven Springs property in New York, and his Los Angeles golf club.

James subpoenaed the company last September and again in February, court documents show. The judge said the real estate firm had “partially responded” to the subpoenas in March before it refused to provide the remaining records.

A spokesperson for the real estate company said in a statement last month that the company had gone to "extreme lengths" to comply with the judge's order.

"We have gone to great expense and effort to quickly identify, collect, review and produce the massive set of documents requested by the OAG, and we have now produced over hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and over 650 appraisals since the last subpoena was issued in February 2022,” the spokesperson said then.

The same judge also found Donald Trump in civil contempt of court earlier this year for failing to comply with a subpoena from the attorney general's office. Engoron lifted the contempt finding in June after Trump complied with the terms of the subpoena and paid $110,000 in fines.

UNIONIZE

PetSmart employees are suing the company claiming staffers are being forced to pay thousands for 'free' grooming training
insider@insider.com (Bethany Biron) - 

Groomers at Petsmart in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. 

Susan L. Angstadt/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images

PetSmart employees are suing the company on claims it's illegally saddling staffers with debt.
Participants in "Grooming Academy" are required to pay back thousands in fees if they leave the company before two years.

The suit claims the policy "strips PetSmart workers of bargaining power that they could use to seek out employment opportunities in which they would be paid more or treated better."

PetSmart employees are suing the company on claims that the retailer's "free" grooming training program is, in fact, not so free after all.

In a class-action lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, plaintiff Breann Scally alleges that though PetSmart "promises aspiring groomers free, paid training," the company is illegally saddling staffers with debt by forcing some to pay back thousands in training costs as part of a repayment stipulation.

According to the suit, employees interested in participating in PetSmart's Grooming Academy must sign a "Training Repayment Agreement Provision," which states that if an employee leaves before two years, they are required to pay back the $5,000 cost of the training.

The stipulation also applies to employees who involuntarily leave the company if they are fired or laid off, the lawsuit states.

Scally writes that the stipulation "strips PetSmart workers of bargaining power that they could use to seek out employment opportunities in which they would be paid more or treated better."

Further, the lawsuit claims the training fails to deliver on promises to provide "exclusive instruction from a dedicated teacher in a classroom setting as well as a supervised, hands-on grooming experience."

"Prospective groomers quickly find themselves grooming dogs for paying customers and may have to struggle for attention from overextended trainers or salon managers," the lawsuit states. "Despite its academic-sounding name, Grooming Academy does not provide employees with a recognized degree or credentialing."

A PetSmart spokesperson told Insider that while the company does not comment on litigation, the company is "proud that PetSmart's on-the-job training program offers a rewarding career path without the out-of-pocket costs associated with other training programs" which "can cost more than $10,000."

"PetSmart is committed to supporting the professional development of our associates," the spokesperson said.

Climate change can make most human diseases worse

Nicole Wetsman - Yesterday 
The Verge

Polio is back, monkeypox isn’t slowing down, COVID-19 is still around — and now there’s more not-so-good news on the infection front: over 200 human diseases could get worse because of climate change, according to a new study.


© Photo by Stefan Jaitner/picture alliance 

Researchers have known for a long time that the changing climate affects disease. Warmer temperatures can make regions newly hospitable to disease-carrying mosquitoes, while floods from more frequent storms can carry bacteria in their surges of water.

Most research, though, only focused on a handful of threats or one disease at a time. The new study, published in Nature Climate Change, built a comprehensive map of all of the ways various climate hazards could interact with 375 documented human infectious diseases.

Related video: WION Climate Tracker | Climate change affects global food production

View on Watch

The authors reviewed over 77,000 scientific articles about those diseases and climate hazards. They found that, of those 375 diseases, 218 could be aggravated by things like heatwaves, rising sea levels, and wildfires.

The study found four main ways climate change exacerbates diseases. First, problems happen when changes cause disease-carrying animals to move closer to people. For example, animal habitats are disrupted by things like wildfires that drive bats and rodents into new areas, increasing the likelihood they’ll transmit diseases like Ebola to people. Other research shows that climate change makes viruses more likely to jump from animals to people, as happened with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That phenomenon also likely contributed to the 2016 Zika outbreaks.

People also move closer to disease-causing animals during climate-driven events. Diseases like cholera and Lassa fever were linked to human movement after storms and floods. Third, climate hazards also give pathogens a boost — like how disease-carrying mosquito populations grow in warmer temperatures. Finally, climate changes make people less able to cope with diseases. For example, large swings in temperature can weaken the human immune system, which might be the reason for flu outbreaks.

If you’re interested in taking a closer look at exactly all the diseases that are affected, the study authors built an interactive chart that connects every disease to the climate hazards that amplify it. So you can see, for example, how drought, fires, and floods make health problems caused by sand flies — including fevers and parasitic skin conditions — more common. Happy (or not so happy) scrolling!

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Cryptoverse: Blockchain bridges fall into troubled waters

By Tom Wilson and Medha Singh - Yesterday 

© Reuters/Dado RuvicIllustration shows representation of cryptocurrency Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dash plunging into water

(Reuters) - Another day, another hack - and another blockchain bridge burned.

When thieves stole an estimated $190 million from U.S. crypto firm Nomad last week, it was the seventh hack of 2022 to target an increasingly important cog in the crypto machine: Blockchain "bridges" - strings of code that help move crypto coins between different applications.

So far this year, hackers have stolen crypto worth some $1.2 billion from bridges, data from London-based blockchain analysis firm Elliptic shows, already more than double last year's total.

"This is a war where the cybersecurity firm or the project can't be a winner," said Ronghui Hu, a professor of computer science at Columbia University in New York and co-founder of cybersecurity firm CertiK.

"We have to protect so many projects. For them (hackers) when they look at one project and there's no bugs, they can simply move on to the next one, until they find a one weak point."

At present, most digital tokens run on their own unique blockchain, essentially a public digital ledger that records crypto transactions. That risks projects using these coins becoming siloed, reducing their prospects for wide use.

Blockchain bridges aim to tear down these walls. Backers say they will play a fundamental role in "Web3" - the much-hyped vision of a digital future where crypto's enmeshed in online life and commerce.

Yet bridges can be the weakest link.

The Nomad hack was the eighth-biggest crypto theft on record. Other thefts from bridges this year include a $615 million heist at Ronin, used in a popular online game, and a $320 million theft at Wormhole, used in so-called decentralised finance applications.

"Blockchain bridges are the most fertile ground for new vulnerabilities," said Steve Bassi, co-founder and CEO of malware detector PolySwarm.

ACHILLES HEEL

Nomad and others companies that make blockchain bridge software have attracted backing.

Just five days before it was hacked, San Francisco-based Nomad said it had raised $22.4 million from investors including major exchange Coinbase Global. Nomad CEO and co-founder Pranay Mohan called its security model the "gold standard."

Nomad did not respond to requests for comment.

It has said it is working with law enforcement agencies and a blockchain analysis firm to track the stolen funds. Late last week, it announced a bounty of up to 10% for the return of funds hacked from the bridge. It said on Saturday it had recovered over $32 million of the hacked funds so far.

"The most important thing in crypto is community, and our number one goal is restoring bridged user funds," Mohan said. "We will treat any party who returns 90% or more of exploited funds as a white hats. We will not prosecute white hats," he said, referring to so-called ethical hackers.

Several cyber security and blockchain experts told Reuters that the complexity of bridges meant they could represent an Achilles' heel for projects and applications that used them.

"A reason why hackers have targeted these cross-chain bridges of late is because of the immense technical sophistication involved in creating these kinds of services," said Ganesh Swami, CEO of blockchain data firm Covalent in Vancouver, which had some crypto stored on Nomad's bridge when it was hacked.

For instance, some bridges create versions of crypto coins that make them compatible with different blockchains, holding the original coins in reserve. Others rely on smart contracts, complex covenants that execute deals automatically.

The code involved in all of these can contain bugs or other flaws, potentially leaving the door ajar for hackers.

BUG BOUNTIES

So how best to address the problem?

Some experts say audits of smart contracts could help to guard against cyber thefts, as well as "bug bounty" programmes that incentivise open-sourced reviews of smart contract code.

Others call for less concentration of control of the bridges by individual companies, something they say could bolster resiliency and transparency of code.

"Cross-chain bridges are an attractive target for hackers because they often leverage a centralized infrastructure, most of which lock up assets," said Victor Young, founder and chief architect at U.S. blockchain firm Analog.

(Reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pravin Char)