Awarded

A jury in the federal District Court of New Mexico in Albuquerque last Wednesday awarded nearly $10 million to a group of San Juan Basin royalty owners against Houston-based BP America Production Co. The owners accused the BP unit of failing to pay adequate royalties.

Apache Canada Ltd. and EOG Resources Canada Inc. have awarded engineering, procurement and construction company KBR the front-end engineering and design contract for Kitimat LNG, the natural gas liquefaction and export facility the partners are planning on British Columbia’s west coast. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have been awarded a $412,000, three-year grant by the Heinz Endowments to identify and mitigate the effects of Marcellus Shale natural gas exploration and development on the state’s forest ecosystem. The interdisciplinary research team, led by two faculty members in the College of Agricultural Sciences, will evaluate landscape change as a result of gas exploration disturbances, assess local and landscape-scale changes to the forest ecosystem and develop an electronic field guide for onsite remediation and wildlife habitat enhancement at Marcellus drilling sites. The team also plans to pilot a long-term citizen-science based monitoring program to track changes to the physical landscape and biotic communities.

As part of a larger nearly $70 million public-private effort, the California Energy Commission (CEC) last Friday awarded $20 million to 11 alternative fuel demonstration projects covering natural gas-powered, hybrid and electric trucks and buses that the CEC said will reduce petroleum use, cut pollution and create jobs.

George P. Mitchell, founder of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. and one of the pioneers of hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracing) and drilling technologies in natural gas shale, was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gas Technology Institute. A petroleum engineer with geology training from Texas A&M University, Mitchell was one of the first to believe natural gas could be extracted from shale. Not wanting his oil wells to go to waste in the event of flow shortages, Mitchell employees drilled into the little-explored Barnett Shale in North Texas beginning in the 1990s and tested hydrofracing techniques on more than 30 wells, with some wells’ production barely even covering the cost of operation. Devon Energy Corp. acquired the company in 2002 and subsequently revolutionized the unconventional shale gas play (see Daily GPI, Jan. 25, 2002; Aug. 15, 2001). “I’m truly honored to be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gas Technology Institute,” said Mitchell. “I believe that the United States should examine all forms of natural gas in order to ease our dependence on coal and foreign oil. It is my hope that my efforts will aid the search for new and unconventional energy sources that can be used by my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter on Thursday awarded two grants totaling almost $800,000 to increase the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter on Thursday awarded two grants totaling almost $800,000 to increase the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel.

The top Republican on a House subcommittee has raised questions about whether the Interior Department “improperly awarded safety certifications to BP, Transocean and the Deepwater Horizon rig,” which exploded on April 20 and led to a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is quickly becoming one of the most significant environmental disasters in recent history (see related story).

The California Energy Commission (CEC) was awarded a “green leadership” award at a state environmental summit and exposition in Sacramento Tuesday, calling out both private- and public-sector research and development grants under the CEC’s $83.5 million annual Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program.