2008

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has lawyers looking at the state’s rights to withhold permits for FERC-approved liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects with which the state disagrees.

New York Gov. David Paterson said Thursday that he opposes construction of Broadwater Energy LLC’s controversial floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and associated pipeline in the middle of Long Island Sound, saying “privatizing open water would be fundamentally wrong,” and issuing an executive order for a planning board to find alternatives.

Just one day after the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced that it has begun information-gathering on the proposed Lease Sale 214 in southern Bristol Bay of the North Aleutian Basin Planning Area in Alaska, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) fired back, noting that offshore oil and gas drilling at the heart of Alaska’s Bering Sea fishery could undermine commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries throughout the region. The WWF added that the action also puts marine mammal and migratory bird habitat at “unacceptable risk.”

BP and ConocoPhillips Tuesday announced a 4 Bcf/d Alaska gasline project, called Denali — The Alaska Gas Pipeline, to commercialize the state’s vast North Slope gas reserves. They claimed the project would be the largest private-sector construction ever in North America.

Southwestern Energy Co., which agreed last week to sell about 6% of its vast holdings in the Fayetteville Shale to XTO Energy Inc., plans to sell its assets in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico.

Pennsylvania regulators are lifting a five-year moratorium on natural gas drilling in state forests and later this year may auction 75,000 acres that cross into the Marcellus Shale and Trenton-Black River formations. The move is significant because the Marcellus Shale is said to be the home of anywhere from 1.9 Tcf to 168 Tcf, depending on whom you ask.

Pennsylvania regulators are lifting a five-year moratorium on natural gas drilling in state forests and later this year may auction 75,000 acres that cross into the Marcellus Shale and Trenton-Black River formations. The move is significant because the Marcellus Shale is said to be the home of anywhere from 1.9 Tcf to 168 Tcf, depending on whom you ask.

ConocoPhillips on Friday was warning its shareholders to steer clear of an unsolicited “mini-tender offer” by TRC Capital Corp. to purchase up to 1.5 million shares, or approximately 0.09%, of ConocoPhillips’ outstanding common stock.

Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP and three subsidiaries last Monday were ordered to pay $10 million as part of a settlement reached with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of charges that they attempted to manipulate natural gas prices at the Houston Ship Channel (HSC).