Control

Oil and natural gas companies looking to drill within regulated interstate river basins need to familiarize themselves with issues facing the local river basin commission and take those issues seriously before ultimately deciding whether to drill, an industry attorney said.

Veteran broadcast journalist and anchor Ted Koppel threw the burning brand into an otherwise predictable ‘he-said (Republican) — she-said (Democrat)’ political debate at the Marcellus Shale Gas Insight conference Thursday, questioning the public benefit of exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Canada’s natural gas producers on Thursday threw their support behind an indepth study by the British Columbia (BC) Oil and Gas Commission (OGC) on “observed induced seismic activity” in the Horn River Basin, which concluded that operators should conduct more monitoring and data collection to ensure continued community safety.

The nation’s natural gas resources, which have grown with the expanded potential of shale plays — including as much as 20 years supply from the Marcellus Shale — can be used to cost-effectively generate electricity, and any environmental burdens will come primarily from combustion when the fuel is used, not when it is extracted, according to a report from the Department of Energy (DOE).

Private hedge fund operator Third Point LLC, which is run by activist investor Daniel Loeb, listed Chesapeake Energy Corp. as one of the fund’s largest new holdings in a June exposure report to investors, according to several market followers.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) plans to expand its natural gas work force by 1,400 positions and centralize overall control of its nearly 50,000 miles of transmission and distribution pipelines by 2015, according to a 45-page plan the San Francisco-based combination utility filed Friday with state regulators.

Institutional investor groups representing trillions of dollars in assets have called on the oil and natural gas industry to use best practice control technologies to reduce global methane emissions from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of unconventional wells.

Dallas-based natural gas vehicle (NGV) conversion company BAF Technologies has acquired Michigan-based automotive emissions control company ServoTech Engineering Inc., which will continue to operate under its current president as a BAF subsidiary. Terms of the acquisition were not released. Headed by Hamid Servati, ServoTech is a Ford Motor Co.-qualified calibration modifier. BAF was the first compressed natural gas converter recognized as Ford-qualified. ServoTech’s relationship with Ford should support BAF in developing engine calibrations more efficiently, enabling it ultimately to receive California and federal air quality approvals faster than in the past, according to BAF President John Bacon. BAF is a wholly owned subsidiary of Clean Energy Fuels Corp., a provider of fueling infrastructure and natural gas for NGVs.

To give Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) complete control of a joint venture (JV) in which merger partner El Paso Corp. now owns one-half, its partnership on Wednesday agreed to buy a 50% interest in the Altamont gathering and processing system in Utah’s Uinta Basin, as well as the Camino Real Gathering System in the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas.