Begins

Offshore activity continues to grow as development begins on a slate of recent discoveries, a sharp contrast to onshore operators, whose “attitude was rather somber,” according to analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc., who shared their takeaways from last week’s Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston.

Forecasters at Colorado State University (CSU) expect the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially begins June 1, will have more activity than the median 1981-2010 season, with an estimated 18 named storms, including nine hurricanes, four of them major (Category 3 or higher) — significantly higher numbers than CSU predicted prior to the 2012 hurricane season (see Daily GPI, April 16, 2012).

If/when the United States begins exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG), it could take decades for the number of outbound cargoes to equal the number of press releases, studies and policy briefs generated by either side of the export debate. Besides powering a manufacturing/petrochemical renaissance, North American shale gas is fueling a bonfire of inanities, at least some would say.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s Buffalo Field Office in Wyoming has approved Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s Crazy Cat East oil and natural gas drilling project about 40 miles south of Buffalo in North Central Wyoming.

While other stakeholders have been critical of California’s preliminary draft hydraulic fracturing (fracking) rules, two energy attorneys with the firm of K&L Gates consider the rules’ proposed protections for trade secrets to be adequate for shielding exploration and production (E&P) operators’ proprietary information tied to fracking.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson said Thursday she will resign from that position after President Obama’s State of the Union speech next month, bringing to an end a sometimes tumultuous four-year tenure.

For Marcellus Shale producers, the gift-receiving season begins this week and continues through the end of the year in the form of additional pipeline takeaway capacity. Multiple projects are slated to come online between Thursday and the end of the year, giving Marcellus producers increased access to markets, and presumably better prices for their gas.

U.S. businesses and consumers are becoming more frugal about their energy consumption, even as the economy slowly begins to recover, according to a new survey from the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions.

The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially begins June 1, will start out with a less conducive environment for tropical storms than the 2011 season, resulting in a near-normal number of named storms, according to AccuWeather.com forecasters.