Accounting

Domestic oil and natural gas drilling continued its surge in 2008, rising 19% in the fourth quarter and 15% for the year, with gas-targeted drilling accounting for slightly more than half of all activity, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said Tuesday. But it warned that drilling activity is beginning to show signs of a slowdown.

As of April, about 200 U.S. gas pipeline projects have been proposed for development between this year and 2010, accounting for more than 10,000 miles of potential pipe additions. Put another way, “Pipeline infrastructure expansion activity again appears to be on an upswing,” the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a pipeline capacity report released Thursday.

As of April, about 200 U.S. gas pipeline projects have been proposed for development between this year and 2010, accounting for more than 10,000 miles of potential pipe additions. Put another way, “Pipeline infrastructure expansion activity again appears to be on an upswing,” the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a pipeline capacity report released last Thursday.

Oregon regulators last Tuesday granted a consumer advocate’s request for deferred accounting treatment of an estimated $20 million in federal and state taxes collected in retail rates during the last three months of 2005 by Portland General Electric (PGE).

The oil and gas industry contributes significantly to Colorado’s economy, accounting for $22.9 billion in economic output, or 6.1% of the state’s economy, and providing employment for 71,000 people, according to a study released Thursday by the Colorado Energy Research Institute.

The oil and gas industry contributes significantly to Colorado’s economy, accounting for $22.9 billion in economic output, or 6.1% of the state’s economy, and providing employment for 71,000 people, according to a study released last week by the Colorado Energy Research Institute.

Will they or won’t they? Without viable economics accounting for the risks involved, North Slope producers cannot make long-term commitments to the “global mega-project” to build a pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to the Lower 48 states, the producers told Alaska legislators last week. But a MidAmerican Energy executive suggested the producers’ are “posturing,” and in the end will sell their gas through the pipeline.

Without viable economics accounting for the risks involved, the “global mega-project” to build a pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to the Lower 48 states is not going to happen, North Slope producers told Alaska legislators this week.

In testimony to a Congressional committee last Wednesday, a FERC staffer downplayed the assertion made in a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report that there is disagreement among experts over the distance at which a fire from a liquefied natural gas (LNG) spill would pose a threat of burns.