David Bradley

FERC should pay close attention to the potential impacts of increased natural gas production in its decision-making process for the Cove Point Liquefaction project, and it should also focus on potential environmental justice impacts from the Calvert County, MD, facility, according to the U.S. Environmental Agency (EPA).

A plan to test groundwater at Pavillion, WY, where residents have complained about possible contamination related to natural gas well drilling, has the support of Encana Corp., which has a leasehold there.

The natural gas industry needs to be given a freer hand with less interference from the federal government, which shouldn’t be limiting the industry’s access to markets abroad, said U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND).

Sales by more than two dozen leading natural gas marketers during the first three months of 2014 increased 0.61 Bcf/d (about 0.5%) compared with 1Q2013, a small rebound for a market that had been on a downward slope for nearly two years, according to NGI’s 1Q2014 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking.

Total U.S. natural gas marketed production will grow by an average rate of 4.0% this year to 73 Bcf/d and 1.3% in 2015 to 73.97 Bcf/d, with onshore production increases in the Lower 48 states more than offsetting declines from the Federal Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and Alaska, according to the Energy Information Administration’s latestShort-Term Energy Outlook.

The nominations of Norman Bay, director of FERC’s Office of Enforcement (OE), to be Commission chairman and current Acting Chairman Cheryl LaFleur to be approved for a second term were stalled this week as some Senate committee members reportedly pushed to reverse the order, having LaFleur continue to lead, while Bay joins as a commissioner.

Total U.S. Natural Gas marketed production will grow by an average rate of 4.0% this year to 73 Bcf/d and 1.3% in 2015 to 73.97 Bcf/d, with Lower 48 onshore production increases — most coming from shale plays — more than offsetting declines from the Federal Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and Alaska, according to the Energy Information Administration’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook.

Less than three weeks after FERC staff determined that Dominion’s proposal to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a facility in Maryland posed no major threat to the environment — and two days before a powerful member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources urged regulators to issue Dominion an export license — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has asked the Commission for a 30-day extension to complete its review of the Cove Point Liquefaction project.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday ruled that FERC “impermissibly segmented the environmental review” of Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) Northeast Upgrade Project and remanded the case to the Commission “for further consideration of segmentation and cumulative impacts.”