Approach

A two-phase approach to the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries should result in a new line from Oklahoma to the Gulf being in place sometime next year, with the XL phase from Canada to Nebraska following by early 2015, the CEO of the project’s sponsor, TransCanada Corp., said Friday. The latter is the only part of the project now requiring a federal Presidential Permit from the U.S. State Department.

A regional approach to siting drilling infrastructure in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale is needed to help minimize development in core forest and productive agricultural lands and to decrease potential risk to waterways, according to researchers at Pennsylvania State University. A study conducted by the university’s College of Agricultural Sciences found that shale gas development is causing rapid landscape change. “The development of new roads to support drilling could affect forest ecosystem integrity via increased fragmentation,” said Patrick Drohan, assistant professor of pedology. Drohan estimated that slightly more than half of the well pads in Pennsylvania are on agricultural land and most of the rest are on forestland. The study found that drilling is competing with food production for space on the landscape.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) shouldn’t take a piecemeal approach to resolving coordination issues affecting the natural gas and electric markets, the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) said Friday.

Two members of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Tuesday said they were forming a partnership approach to oversee two remaining natural gas pipeline safety proceedings regarding the aftermath of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) 2010 transmission pipe rupture and explosion in San Bruno, CA.

A coalition of environmental groups is calling on Pennsylvania lawmakers to take a new approach in their ongoing efforts to approve an impact fee on natural gas drilling in the state, either by starting the process over or dividing the omnibus legislation into four separate bills.

Two anchor shippers have signed binding agreements for capacity on Texas Eastern Transmission LP’s (Tetco) TEAM 2014 expansion project to carry gas from Appalachia’s shale plays to the Northeast, Midwest and southern United States, the Spectra Energy Corp. pipeline said.

The approach of colder temperatures that would take Friday lows into the 30s in the Northeast kept spot prices rising in that region Thursday. But most other areas succumbed to predictions of weekend warming trends and the previous day’s 9.3-cent futures drop in recording lower quotes.

Less than 14% of Americans believe the United States is headed in the right direction on energy, according a poll released on Wednesday by the University of Texas at Austin (UT).

ExxonMobil Corp.’s oil and gas production volumes had languished before 2010, often in the single digits as the oil major failed to build a resource base to equal its profits. However, that changed last year with the purchase of U.S. shale king XTO Energy Inc. and was proved Thursday when ExxonMobil said its quarterly volumes were up 10% from a year ago.