Assessment

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) needs better data to track the processing times for applications of permits to drill (APD) and to prioritize the inspections of oil and natural gas wells on federal lands, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report.

Although the storms are gone, the troubles from historic flooding along the Front Range in Colorado continued to pop up Thursday in the Niobrara Formation portion of the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. wrestled with oil spills from two of its tank batteries damaged by the still-raging flood waters.

Torrential rains and widespread flooding in Colorado that have resulted in loss of life and more than 1,000 people missing are also having a significant impact on natural gas utilities, exploration and production (E&P) companies and gas pipelines.

FERC on Friday issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) of Tallgrass Interstate Gas Transmission’s proposal to convert the Pony Express Pipeline to meet the increasing demand for crude oil transportation service out of the Bakken formation.

An affiliate of Chesapeake Energy Corp. is being sued by the U.S. government for failing to pay taxes in 2001 through 2003. Chesapeake Appalachia LLC is the successor company of Triana Energy Inc., which Chesapeake purchased in 2005 as part of a transaction with Columbia Natural Resources LLC. The deal gave Chesapeake entry into the relatively unexplored Marcellus Shale, with acreage in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, New York and Kentucky. According to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, the United States assessed taxes against Triana in 2001 through 2003 for a total of $431,988, which as of May 17 it “has failed, neglected or refused to pay” (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia at Charleston, No. 2:13-cv-11988). Federal officials are seeking the tax assessment and statutory additions accrued.

FERC Monday issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) of Trunkline Gas Co.’s proposal to convert a multi-state natural gas pipeline to crude oil service for the Gulf Coast market.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tuesday released its first-ever rapid ecoregional assessment (REA), which takes a broad look at the ecology of the Colorado Plateau.

Authorities in Quebec have been monitoring environmental groups opposed to shale gas development in the province for the last two years on fears that their activities could become radicalized and violent, according to a report by La Presse, a French newspaper in Montreal.

The New York Department of Health (DOH) conducted a draft assessment of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) in early 2012 and concluded that, with appropriate regulation, the practice could be performed safely in the state, according to reports.