Carbon

Los Angeles-based Southern California Gas Co. has launched a futuristic research adventure, seeking to use natural gas as the raw material for combining hydrogen energy and various carbon-based byproducts.

Vows in the Canadian fossil fuel industry to go on a low-carbon diet have spread beyond Alberta thermal oilsands production into British Columbia (BC) natural gas.

Carbon Natural Gas Co.affiliate Carbon Appalachian Co. LLC has paid an undisclosed seller $41.3 million for 780,000 net acres and 3,100 miles of natural gas pipelines and related facilities in West Virginia. The conventional assets are producing 37.4 MMcfe/d of natural gas and are 84% held-by-production. Carbon Appalachian was formed earlier this yearwith a $100 million equity commitment from two undisclosed investors to acquire and develop property in the region. It acquired another packageof assets in West Virginia over the summer. Carbon, which operates in the Appalachian, Illinois and Ventura basins, increased its ownership in the subsidiary to 19.37% from 16%.

San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has opened the Gas Safety Academy, in Winters, CA, as its primary training center for employees learning to operate and maintain all aspects of the combination utility’s natural gas delivery system. Included in the center — the third gas safety facility opened by PG&E in the past four years — are heavy equipment simulators, virtual learning resources, a model neighborhood for emergency response, leak detection practices, and educational safety protocol programs. PG&E officials said that the new center represents five years of research, benchmarking, design and construction. The center is designed to handle 150 employees weekly and provide nearly 36,000 hours of training annually.

With global demand increasing, liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 2025 will be the largest source of carbon emissions growth for the biggest oil and gas companies, according to an analysis by Wood Mackenzie.

House lawmakers passed a $1.2 trillion package of appropriations bills for the next fiscal year on Thursday, but not before Republicans successfully added four amendments targeting Obama-era rules, including those governing methane emissions and the “social cost of carbon.”

A newly formed affiliate of Denver-based Carbon Natural Gas Co. continues to acquire acreage in the Appalachian Basin, announcing Tuesday that it paid an undisclosed seller $21.5 million for natural gas assets in West Virginia.

Some of the world’s largest oil and natural gas producers and influential corporate leaders on Tuesday joined a push to enact a U.S. carbon tax in an effort to slow climate change.

Some of the world’s largest oil and natural gas producers and influential corporate leaders on Tuesday joined a push to enact a U.S. carbon tax in an effort to slow climate change.