Approved

With its fourth non-free trade agreement (FTA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) export authorization Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Energy has approved a volume of exports that is beginning to make some nervous. While approvals have gathered pace, some feel that a pause is coming.

FERC on Thursday approved a Houston-based start-up company’s request for additional time to complete construction and place into service the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) peak-shaving storage facility in Florida.

The Texas Transportation Commission has approved $225 million for work to repair roads damaged as a consequence of the state’s oil and gas boom. The funding, provided by the Texas Legislature (see Shale Daily, May 30), will allow the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)to begin repairing and rehabilitating roadways damaged by heavy trucks and increased traffic. It is estimated that energy sector traffic across the state has caused $400 million in immediate roadway safety concerns, such as severe edge damage on narrow roadways, deep rutting and pavement damage. Estimates show an additional $1 billion per year is needed to restore roadways heavily impacted by energy development to “good” or “better” conditions, the commission said. “Fatalities resulting from motor vehicle crashes in Texas rose by 11% in 2012 compared to the previous year,” said TxDOT Executive Director Phil Wilson. “We are pleased that our lawmakers saw fit to fund some of these safety-focused rehabilitation and repair projects, and we hope resources that enhance safety will continue to be a priority as our energy industry thrives.” With more than 80,000 miles of highway, Texas, home of the Eagle Ford and Barnett shales as well as the Permian Basin, has the largest highway system in the nation.

A bankruptcy court in New York has approved plans by Norse Energy Corp. USA to sell its assets, especially oil and gas leases for about 130,000 net acres in the state’s portion of the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Questar Corp.’s exploration and production subsidiary on Monday agreed to pay $106.4 million to bolt-on more natural gas wells to an existing leasehold in Wyoming.

Halcon Field Services, a unit of Halcon Resources Corp., is proposing to build a storage and rail-loading terminal for Utica Shale oil at the Ohio Commerce Center industrial rail park in the village of Lordstown, in Trumbull County, OH. Plans call for four bay truck racks, a 20-rail car loading platform, and six 90,000 bbl storage tanks. The $50-$60 million project is to be completed in three phases, with the first phase expected to go into service by the end of this year. A zoning variance was recently approved to allow construction to begin.

The Port of Vancouver, WA, Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a 10-year lease with a joint venture (JV) involving units of Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies for a crude oil rail terminal at the port.

FERC has approved a request from Spectra Energy unit Algonquin Gas Transmissions to begin a pre-filing review process for the company’s proposed Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Project, a significant step forward for the long-awaited pipeline, which would deliver to the Northeast critically needed gas from Pennsylvania.

The California Public Utilities Commission has approved a 50% increase in the working capacity of one of the state’s largest merchant-based underground natural gas storage facilities, Wild Goose Storage LLC, north of Sacramento. Regulators unanimously agreed that Wild Goose may expand its working capacity from 50 Bcf to 75 Bcf, the third expansion since it was opened as the state’s first competitive storage facility in 1999. Wild Goose is interconnected with two major gas transmission pipelines of San Francisco-based combination utility Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which operates its own network of underground storage facilities in Northern California, totaling more than 100 Bcf of working capacity.