Rich Nemec

North Dakota, the nation’s second largest oil-producing state, will strive to become carbon-neutral by decade’s end, Gov. Doug Burgum said Wednesday. At the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, Burgum cited the global energy sustainability effort that North Dakota intends to join. He encouraged the oil and gas industry representatives in the audience to support…

Continental Resources Inc. and Energy Transfer LP executives said Wednesday the future prospects for the Bakken Shale are strong, and they expect the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) to continue to serve the region’s oil producers.   Speaking at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, ND, Continental Executive Chairman Harold Hamm and Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy…

Black Hills Corp. utilities absorbed more than $600 million in added costs in February related to the impacts from extreme cold weather. The bulk of the $565 million in additional charges for the Rapid City, SD-based operator were attributed to the natural gas utilities in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming. “During this extreme…

Portland, OR-based NW Natural finessed its natural gas supply and storage operations to avoid excessive extra costs during February, which helped lift first quarter profits by more than 20%, the CEO said last week. “During a widespread freeze in Oregon in February, our teams successfully managed gas operations to mitigate impacts on customers,” CEO David…

A growing interest in renewable natural gas (RNG) was underscored this month as Newport Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. signed seven fleet and fueling station supply contracts and Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) entered a demonstration project using supplies to produce hydrogen. Clean Energy, which has contracts with fleets in the ports of Los…

Energy infrastructure holding company Sempra Energy wants its California and Texas utilities to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045, but they need some help from technology innovations and regulators, executives said. A key for California utilities, including Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas), is developing renewable natural gas (RNG) as a decarbonizing tool, CEO Jeff Martin said…

Acknowledging the risk for another above-average wildfire season, Edison International CEO Pablo Pizarro said recently he was confident the Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) utility was prepared. California avoided the “catastrophic widespread damage” of the 2017 and 2018 fire seasons even with last year’s all-time record acreage scorched, he said during the first quarter conference…

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Corp. was tagged with $1 billion in added fuel costs by Winter Storm Uri in February, for which it plans to seek recovery from state regulatory commissions, according to CEO Ben Fowke. Fowke, during a 1Q2021 earnings conference call Thursday said the fuel costs from the storm came “despite strong operational performance.”…

For the next 15 years, natural gas will be an important transition fuel, but longer term, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) is still conducting an assessment of what its future will be, CEO Patti Poppe said Thursday. “In all the clean energy scenarios, and certainly in the near-term over the next 15 years, there…