Rich Nemec

A federal grand jury for the Northern District of California on Tuesday issued a superseding indictment charging Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) with obstructing a safety investigation and violating the 1968 Pipeline Safety Act (PSA) related to the 2010 rupture of a natural gas transmission pipeline that killed eight people in San Bruno, CA.

Hess Corp. said Wednesday it plans to pursue the formation and initial public offering (IPO) for a master limited partnership (MLP) principally tied to its midstream assets in the Bakken Shale play in North Dakota. It expects to make the IPO during the first quarter of 2015.

Tulsa, OK-based Oneok Partners LP on Wednesday outlined plans for investing up to $785 million over the next two years to build natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) processing, compression and pipelines to move Bakken Shale-produced supplies from the Williston Basin in North Dakota.

Echoing some of the criticism from Congress toward the U.S. Commerce Department on its handling of proposals to allow crude oil condensate exports (see Shale Daily, July 10), Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) CEO Gary Heminger on Thursday said the uncertainty is counterproductive economically. He made the remarks during a 2Q2014 conference call reporting greatly increased quarter-over-quarter results.

North Dakota regulators are challenged by increasing volumes of wellsite waste from growth in the Bakken Shale, but the state now is facing criticism for not doing enough to protect the environment and in particular, groundwater.

While signaling that Pacific Northwest hydroelectric supplies this year should remain strong, Portland General Electric (PGE) senior executives said Tuesday that two major new natural gas-fired generation plants are on schedule to be online by 2016.

Colorado firefighters Monday afternoon continued to battle a wildfire in the far northwest corner of the state, seeking to keep surrounding ranches and oil and natural production wells out of harm’s way. No cause for the fire has been determined, and industry sources had no information on possible impact on oil/gas operations in the area.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed an energy agreement with Mexican national officials promoting cross-border energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. Brown also signed a climate change agreement with Mexican national government officials in Mexico City to cooperate on initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. “California and Mexico both take the low-carbon imperative with utmost seriousness, and [the state] cannot do it alone; with this new partnership with Mexico we can make real progress on reducing dangerous GHG emissions,” Brown said.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Friday said it had reached a settlement with the City of San Bruno, CA, over a Public Records Act lawsuit the city launched early this year, alleging the state regulators were withholding documents related to the aftermath of the horrific 2010 natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion in the suburb 10 miles south of San Francisco.