Rich Nemec

Natural gas wells in and around Pavillion, WY, where gas-water contamination allegations have swirled for a number of years, were properly permitted and constructed, according to a draft report released by the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC).

In what could become a major regulatory jurisdictional, if not legal, dispute, the three affiliated tribes on North Dakota’s Fort Berthold Reservation — Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA) — have outlined plans for imposing a fee on the amounts of wellhead flared wet gas coming from the booming Bakken shale oil production on the reservation.

Even with some robust quarter-over-quarter production growth, particularly in crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL), Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp.’s oil/natural gas operations continued to operate in the red, reporting small losses Wednesday for both the 2Q2014 and first half of the year.

Following the closure of a major nuclear power plant in Southern California, NRG Energy Inc. expects to obtain final state regulatory approvals for a long-standing plan to repower and redevelop part of its existing natural gas-fired Carlsbad generation plant along the Pacific Coast in San Diego County, NRG CEO David Crane said Thursday on a 2Q2014 earnings conference call.

As state officials in Colorado withdrew their legal actions regarding local government efforts to regulate oil and natural gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a state district judge gave the industry a belated, if unneeded, legal victory on Thursday.

Sempra Energy plans to continue to seek a variety of energy development projects in Mexico, given the federal government reforms now unfolding there (see Daily GPI, Aug. 7). The San Diego, CA-based holding company has a well-established foothold south of the border, CEO Debra Reed told financial analysts Thursday.

It is still a toss up as to whether compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG) will prevail as the preferred fuel for fleet operators switching to natural gas vehicles (NGV), the head of a leading national fueling company said Thursday.

Reporting U.S. and overall production growth of 33% and 17%, respectively, EOG Resources senior executives talked bullishly on a 2Q2014 conference call Tuesday about new and existing shale plays with an emphasis on liquids-rich crude oil. They expressed no interest in new dry natural gas plays, citing current low domestic prices.

California-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. on Tuesday marked its results from the first half of this year, saying they have resulted in the opening of 27 new natural gas vehicle (NGV) fueling stations and the expansion of another 10. Nine of the facilities are part of the nationwide effort to create America’s Natural Gas Highway (see Daily GPI,Aug. 25, 2011).