Annual

FERC obtained more than $148 million in civil penalties and disgorgement of more than $119 million in unjust profits in fiscal year (FY) 2012, according to the agency’s annual report on enforcement, which was released Thursday.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) announced Monday that localities will receive a total of $108.7 million from the impact fees enacted under Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law.

Lower 48 onshore oil and gas reserves are a huge energy pond, about 1.1 Qcfe worth, and the Marcellus Shale is its biggest fish. According to new research from Calgary-based ITG Investment Research, “the Marcellus dwarfs any other resource at 330 Tcfe, followed by the Eagle Ford and Bakken [shales] at 152 Tcfe (25 billion boe) and 72 Tcfe (12 billion boe), respectively.

Buyers will need to be confident that natural gas trucks are reliable, functional and easily fueled, a survey revealed.

As part of it $100 million annual alternative transportation fuels program, the California Energy Commission (CEC) approved another $582,000 for the development of two compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling facilities and for subsidizing a local vehicle dealer’s purchase of alternative fuel vehicles.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) said Monday that natural gas producers have paid most of about $206 million owed under the drilling impact fee enacted under Act 13, surging past the $180 million the state thought it would take in this year from its new omnibus Marcellus Shale law.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is expecting to hold its annual sale of oil and gas lease tracts in the Beaufort Sea, North Slope and North Slope Foothills on Nov. 7. The sale area encompasses 14.7 million acres, an area the size of Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut combined.

Two Washington, DC-based groups representing oil and gas producers have protested the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final new source performance standards, which are aimed at restricting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and sulfur dioxide emissions from onshore natural gas operations, including hydraulically fractured (fracked) wells. One of the groups is seeking a stay of the EPA’s action.

EOG Resources’ strategy of the last year to edge away from natural gas exploration and production in order to focus on the more economically viable production of crude oil appears to be paying off as the Houston-based producer posted a 38% increase in second quarter earnings over the previous year’s quarter. The company attributed much of its strong earnings to successful programs on acreage in the South Texas Eagle Ford Shale and North Dakota Bakken Shale.