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Although they deferred action until next month, California regulators Thursday spent considerable time discussing the deployment of advanced natural gas utility metering systems and the fate of a gas-fired generation plant in Northern California that the state’s grid operator claims is essential to reliability. Advocates for the smart gas meters contend that they are essential for upgrades to pipeline system safety.

Hess Corp. officials said last week that although production fell in 2011 and it suffered a net earnings loss in the final quarter, they are confident 2012 will be a better year as they move forward with promising development in North America’s onshore and the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

Hess Corp. officials said that although production fell in 2011 and the company suffered a net loss in the final quarter, they are confident 2012 will be a better year as they move forward with promising development in North America’s onshore and the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

After securing a natural gas midstream partnership in the Horn River Basin with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Quicksilver Resources Inc. now is pursuing a partnership to develop its upstream leasehold, executives said Thursday.

Although Ruby Pipeline operator El Paso Corp. had indicated Tuesday that a systemwide shutdown might be ended as early as Wednesday, the in-service date has been shifted to sometime between Saturday and next Wednesday. Ruby said a full assessment of the scope of necessary repairs has been completed, and the longest lead item is for replacement of the 42-inch block valve. The restoration of service depends on the time required to secure and install the replacement valve.

Although the backers already have signaled that they will push back, Oregon Attorney General John Kroger has filed with FERC asking the federal regulators to revoke permits for the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) project at Coos Bay and a related transmission pipeline along the south-central coast of Oregon.

Although it is not likely to subside in the months ahead, concern among state officials regarding proposed federal rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is creating a lot of posturing from both political and legal standpoints. North Dakota is in the middle of the messy states’ rights public debate.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that although natural gas production in North Dakota has more than doubled since 2005, so far more than 35% of that production for 2011 has been flared or otherwise not marketed because of insufficient infrastructure in the Bakken Shale.

Although the dogs are still barking in Pennsylvania, the caravan for imposing a fee on natural gas drillers in the most active shale gas state appears to be moving on.