Challenges

In the wake of key natural gas pipeline ruptures and explosions in the past two years, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has placed pipeline safety on the list of the 10 top transportation challenges that it will face in 2013.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration is reportedly working on a plan to allow hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in five counties along the Pennsylvania border in the Marcellus Shale, but only in localities that support the practice.

Ohio’s laws addressing old leases and conservation issues could pose some unique challenges to proponents of energy development in the state’s portions of the Marcellus and Utica shales, two attorneys with the law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP said during a presentation Wednesday.

Ohio’s laws addressing old leases and conservation issues could pose some unique challenges to proponents of energy development in the state’s portions of the Marcellus and Utica shales, two attorneys with the law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP said last week.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said development of the Marcellus Shale was “good for the entire state” but conceded that several challenges lay ahead, in part because natural gas prices remain less than $3/Mcf.

Even though northern shale drilling remains in its infancy, the British Columbia cradle of the emerging natural gas source is catching up fast to the traditional mainstay of Canadian supplies.

The challenges of developing oil and gas resources in unconventional plays and in the deepwater have raised the bar for geosciences and petroleum engineering professionals and heightened the importance of human resource (HR) management at exploration and production (E&P) companies, according to the latest survey from Schlumberger Business Consulting (SBC).

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) lauded a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) environmental appeals board (EAB) to deny all challenges to clean air permits for Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Noble Discoverer drillship.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) lauded a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) environmental appeals board (EAB) to deny all challenges to clean air permits for Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Noble Discoverer drillship.