Rich Nemec

In the drought-scarred West and the current era of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), California’s preponderance of water produced in conjunction with oil is gaining more attention among industry and government leaders.

The competition between rail and pipelines for moving Bakken sweet light crude oil in North Dakota will continue to be brisk, driven by WTI and Brent price spreads and by the ultimate added costs from stepped-up regulation of crude-by-rail transportation, according to an analysis by the University of Texas Center for Energy Economics (CEE) in Austin.

Sempra Energy plans to break ground for its Cameron Liquefaction Project on Oct. 23 at the site of its existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal at Hackberry, LA. The project has all federal approvals and is expected to cost $9-10 billion using many of Cameron LNG’s existing facilities. It will be composed of three liquefaction trains capable of exporting up to 12 million tons of LNG annually, or about 1.7 Bcf/d of gas (see Daily GPI, June 19). Full commercial operation is expected in 2019.

On a preliminary basis, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has determined that an electric arc may have sparked a flash fire that killed a maintenance worker at a natural gas storage tank in Wyoming. Investigations continued at the site on Friday.

An Internet-based groundwater monitoring technology was introduced in Colorado Wednesday in a joint effort by a university researcher, major oil/natural gas operator, environmental group and the state.

Denver-based ARB Midstream LLC plans to build and operate a crude oil transloading terminal in the heart of the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin, it said Wednesday.

With backdrop of a defiant city council in Fort Collins, CO, the governor’s statewide task force will sit down for the first time Thursday in Denver to begin to develop bipartisan legislative proposals to foster cooperation between local governments and the oil and gas industry.

EOG Resources Inc. said a flash fire in one of its natural gas storage tanks in western Wyoming during maintenance operations on Tuesday afternoon has resulted in the death of one worker and injuries to three others. The incident, first reported as an explosion, occurred in a desert region about 30 miles northwest of Green River, WY.

North Dakota’s state lawmakers continue to scramble to maintain and expand infrastructure impacted by the oil/natural gas boom in the state that spills over from the Bakken/Three Forks shale plays into the western counties and local communities.