Administrator

BP plc is attempting to oust the controversial court-appointed claims administrator of the Macondo oil spill program.

BP plc could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court on Monday rejected a bid in an 8-5 decision that would have allowed the oil major to prevent compensation payments to businesses that had not proved they were harmed directly by the Macondo well blowout.

A federal appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday ordered that some payments required to be paid by BP plc be halted to Gulf Coast businesses claiming they were impacted by the Macondo well blowout.

The New Orleans federal judge overseeing the BP plc multi-district litigation concerning the Macondo well blowout ordered the producer on Wednesday to ante up more than $130 million in fees to continue funding the court-supervised claims administrator.

Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have asked U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy to explain how the agency’s forays into three controversial sites will affect its comprehensive study of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Air Quality Division (AQD) Administrator Steve Dietrich on Monday reinforced the state’s intention this spring to increase its program for compliance checks of oil and natural gas production facility engines.

In a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (EPA) Lisa Jackson Thursday, Republican Sens. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and David Vitter of Louisiana blasted the agency’s decision to again delay the public comment period on the controversial draft report examining groundwater contamination near Pavillion, WY.

A six-foot section of a 20-inch diameter Columbia Gas Transmission system that ruptured Dec. 11 in West Virginia had wall thickness measured as low as 0.078 inches, significantly thinner than the nominal wall thickness of 0.281 inches when the pipeline was installed in 1967, according to a preliminary report issued Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Natural gas demand for U.S. electricity generation this winter is likely to look a lot like it did this past winter, 2.5-2.6 Tcf, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Deputy Administrator Howard Gruenspecht said at the LDC Gas Forum in Chicago. In addition, a lot of coal-fired generation will still be around, but how much capacity gets used will depend on natural gas prices. “We’re again expecting the power burn to run between 2.5 Tcf and 2.6 Tcf of gas for the period of December this year through March 2013…There is about 500 Bcf going to generation that could switch back to coal should natural gas prices start to rise above our expectations.” Gruenspecht said earlier this year the power burn was running more than 24 Bcf/d of gas to generate electricity. “We’re now expecting over the course of this year for the Henry Hub natural gas price to average about $2.65 and the average to move up to $3.34 next year. There is a lot of uncertainty about natural gas prices, in September we are looking at a future contract price ranges from $2.30/MMBtu to almost $4.70/MMBtu.”