Joe Fisher

The state of Alaska has filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's (USFWS) refusal to consider the state's exploration plan for the coastal plain, or 1002 Area, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

Employees at a West Texas oilfield services company deliberately dumped hazardous waste containing acid into a city of Odessa manhole, harming the city’s water treatment operations, a police investigation and lawsuit allege.

FERC staff Friday issued the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the Phase II Modification Project and the Liquefaction Project proposed by Freeport LNG. Construction would entail “significant and unavoidable impacts;” however, mitigation measures would reduce other impacts “to less-than-significant levels.”

With the country’s “extraordinary winter for natural gas consumption” winding down, thoughts of gas market players have been on what’s left in gas storage caverns and what it will take to refill them in time for winter 2014-2015.

With Marcellus/Utica shale producers still clamoring for exits from the gas-bloated region, numerous pipelines have been stepping up with capacity offers on their systems.

An update of a study supporting the case for exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has found that the “more the better” argument is even more true when fresh, more optimistic data on U.S. gas production are considered, and that the manufacturing and chemicals sectors have nothing to fear from LNG exports.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources will hold its annual Cook Inlet and Alaska Peninsula areawide oil and gas lease sales on May 7 at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage. The Cook Inlet Areawide lease sale area is divided into 815 tracts ranging in size from 100 to 5,760 acres. The Alaska Peninsula Areawide lease sale area is divided into 1,047 tracts ranging in size from 1,280 to 5,760 acres. “Cook Inlet holds significant oil and gas resources and we are looking forward to a successful lease sale and the continued development of these resources,” said Division of Oil and Gas Director Bill Barron. Last year’s Cook Inlet lease sale was the third largest of its kind in nominal dollars and the sixth largest in acreage leased since the state’s area-wide lease sale program began in 1999, officials said (see Daily GPI,May 9, 2013). Bidders must be qualified by May 2 and bids must be received by May 5. Visit the department’s Division of Oil and Gaswebsite for more information.

Devon Energy Corp. and Crosstex Energy Inc. have completed the combination of their midstream assets to form EnLink Midstream LLC (ENLC) and EnLink Midstream Partners LP (ENLK), whose assets will be focused on unconventional plays.

Earthquakes induced by the injection of wastewater, such as that from oil and gas drilling, can cause larger quakes, suggests new research that examined quake activity in Oklahoma.