Rich Nemec

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.

In the heart of middle America there is a pre-winter dogfight unfolding in a federal district court in Omaha, NE, pitting a trading unit at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) against the local public sector utility and its nonprofit natural gas buying cooperative. The dispute centers on a $719 million, 30-year gas deal the bank wants to terminate.

If its Monterey Shale potential is fully realized, California could get back to its modern-day high levels of oil production at the 1 million b/d mark, but ongoing issues of water and energy sustainability may get in the way, the state’s oil/natural gas supervisor said during a panel discussion Thursday night at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles.

An MDU Resources Group diesel refinery in North Dakota is on schedule to begin operations before the end of this year, and a separate fertilizer plant that its midstream unit will supply with natural gas feedstock now looks like its development will move forward, MDU executives told an analysts conference in Las Vegas, NV, Wednesday.

In response to FERC actions attempting to improve coordination between the electric and natural gas grids, the California grid operator has proposed some changes for this winter that will be discussed in a stakeholder conference call Tuesday.

Some big oil and gas producers are collaborating in a unique initiative sponsored by the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association (CCIA).

There will be no big decline in North Dakota oil and natural gas production over the next two years, the state’s chief oil/gas regulatory told an association of the state’s county energy officials on Thursday. Major production will remain concentrated in four counties: Dunn, McKenzie, Mountrail and Williams.

General Motors (GM) on Thursday said it was recalling 3,196 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans with a compressed natural gas (CNG) option to check for a possible hazard in the vehicles CNG regulator. GM said the recall also includes an additional 13 vehicles in Canada.

State and local elected officials from around San Bruno, CA, on Friday called for California Attorney General Kamala Harris to investigate the latest revelations of inappropriate state regulator-utility contact evolving from Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) pending natural gas system rate case (see Daily GPI, Sept. 16).