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A study released last week that examines the potential of oil and gas production from the Arctic contains disappointing news for anyone who was counting on the region to become the next oil breadbasket for the United States.

A new study examining the potential of oil and gas production from the Arctic contains disappointing news for anyone who was counting on the region to become the next oil breadbasket for the United States.

Anyone who doesn’t think the North American liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry has been evolving only needs to look back about two years to see how far things have come.

Anyone who doesn’t think the North American liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry has been evolving only needs to look back about two years to see how far things have come.

Anyone who doubts the growing importance of onshore unconventional natural gas basins should take a look at second quarter results from EOG Resources Inc. and Southwestern Energy Co. Both companies credit prolific shale production — EOG’s in the Barnett and Southwestern’s in the Fayetteville — for strong results last quarter.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone when an energy industry CEO paying more than $20 billion to grow the oil and gas holdings of his company is not a fan of ethanol as a motor fuel.

For anyone who was keeping score, it seemed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was collecting far more money from energy companies in penalties and settlements than the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over the past year. But that’s not what the totals show. FERC, in fact, obtained over $100 million more from energy firms than the CFTC, according to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) review of the second-year performance of the president’s Corporate Fraud Task Force.

For anyone who was keeping score, it seemed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was collecting far more money from energy companies in penalties and settlements than the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over the past year. But that’s not what the totals show. FERC, in fact, obtained over $100 million more from energy firms than the CFTC, according to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) review of the second-year performance of the president’s Corporate Fraud Task Force.

What a difference a year makes. As if anyone wanted to be reminded, it was Oct. 16, 2001 when Enron Corp. released its third-quarter earnings, boasting of continued growth, despite a billion-dollar write-off. Within weeks, that incidental write-off that was barely discussed during a conference call with analysts by then-CEO Ken Lay, eventually would erase the entire company (see NGI, Oct. 22, 2001). Fast forward to one year later, and despite its disappearance, Enron’s once mighty shadow continues to darken the marketplace.