Awards

Louisiana oil and natural gas interests are rallying support for legislation intended to put the brakes on runaway liability awards for environmental damage in the state. SB 443 is currently in the state Senate Judiciary Committee A, and Louisiana Oil & Gas Association (LOGA) Chairman Don Briggs is hoping the industry will step up to support it.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has approved distributing more than $1.5 million for natural gas- and propane-powered bus transportation in the state. Four awards were granted to three bus companies and a Ford dealer in La Puente, CA. They are part of the CEC’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, under which nearly $14 million has been distributed to public- and private-sector fleet operators. Grants were: two to Creative Bus Sales of Chino, CA, ($575,000 each) for five gas-powered mini-buses and the rest for purchasing 28 shuttle buses. The second award, also for $575,000, will go toward five minibuses and another 28 shuttle buses. All the vehicles are powered by natural gas and are either in the light or medium-duty size categories. A third award ($160,000) went to Inglewood, CA-based Nations Bus Corp. to buy 10 each medium- and heavy-duty propane-power shuttle buses. The fourth grant ($228,000) went to Ed Butts Ford Inc. for 10 propane-powered shuttle buses in the medium-duty size category.

A trade group representing developers of shale gas Tuesday blasted the Academy Awards nomination of Gasland for best documentary feature, saying it grossly misrepresented the facts about the hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) practice associated with the production of shale.

Sempra LNG officials announced last Monday that the company awarded approximately $1.2 billion in contracts to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal projects near Lake Charles, LA, and in Baja California, Mexico.

Sempra LNG officials announced Monday that the company awarded approximately $1.2 billion in contracts to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal projects near Lake Charles, LA, and in Baja California, Mexico.

Mexico’s state-owned oil and gas company has awarded new contracts for 20 offshore rigs under a project to expand production in the Gulf of Mexico. Once they are completed in 2006, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is forecasting that the project will contribute nearly 1.5 million bbl/d of crude production and 1.4 Bcf/d of natural gas output.

FERC on Friday gave Cheyenne Plains Gas Pipeline, a subsidiary of El Paso Corp., final environmental clearance to build a 380-mile line that would deliver Rocky Mountain natural gas supplies to eastern markets.

A Mexican-Argentine consortium has won the third tender to explore the Mision block in the Burgos Basin, after offering a bid of $1.036 billion, according to Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Spanish-Argentine energy concern Repsol-YPF SA said Friday it is committing $170 million over the next three years to produce natural gas in the Burgos Basin of Mexico after being awarded the first multiple service contract (MSC) by Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).