Charlie Passut

FERC invoked its emergency authority Friday under the Interstate Commerce Act to help alleviate “dangerously low” propane supplies to consumers in the Midwest and Northeast.

FERC invoked its emergency authority Friday under the Interstate Commerce Act to help alleviate “dangerously low” propane supplies to consumers in the Midwest and Northeast.

As the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States struggle with bitterly cold weather and low supplies and high prices for propane, exports of the fuel — especially to Europe, Asia and Latin America — have risen more than 75% in a year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports.

Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. plans to apply for local permission to drill eight test wells at two new sites in northwest England’s Lancashire County, but it will not seek permission to conduct hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at an existing test well there, the company said Tuesday.

Consol Energy Inc. added 1.63 Tcfe to its proved reserves through extensions and discoveries in 2013, which the company said on Thursday marks the fifth consecutive year that drillbit finding and development costs were less than 50 cents per Mcfe.

A subsidiary of Moody’s Investors Service Inc. is considering upgrading the rating of Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), following the Mexican government’s decision to reform its energy policies.

Energy reforms by the Mexican government are good news for the state-owned petroleum company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and electric utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), but the benefits won’t not be immediate and CFE may face challenges from increased competition, according to analysts with Fitch Ratings.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. plans to spend $1.43 billion on capital expenditures (capex) and ramp up production in the Bakken Shale and Three Forks formation in 2014, but it will sell more than 8,000 net acres both in and adjacent to its Sanish operating area for $333 million by March.

Shale gas picked up some kudos in the prepared speech Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett delivered Tuesday to discuss his proposed $29.4 billion budget, but no mention was made of controversies surrounding it, such as a possible severance tax or the ongoing legal battle over Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law.