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Sales competition is undermining international prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to ExxonMobil Corp.’s export terminal proposal for the northern Pacific Coast of British Columbia (BC). The supermajor and Canadian affiliate Imperial Oil Ltd. noted the competition in a filing with the National Energy Board (NEB) to build terminal that could export as much as 30 million metric tons a year (mmty) to overseas markets.

With industry, a U.S. senator and North Dakota state officials all focused on robust permitting applications for oil and natural gas development in the Bakken Shale, the Bakken Federal Executives Group is the latest attempt to streamline federal processes that are criticized for being too slow.

The House Friday passed legislation that would open more federal waters to oil and natural gas exploration and production, but the bill has next to no chance of advancing in the Senate and being signed into law by President Obama.

ExxonMobil Corp. has filed for permission to export 30 million metric tons a year (mmty) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the west coast of British Columbia (BC) (see related story). The Irving, TX-based operator said in an export license application with the National Energy Board that it is assessing potential construction sites in the Kitimat and Prince Rupert, BC areas for an LNG facility that would include six processing units. The project would be a partnership with its majority-owned Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil Ltd. If all goes as scheduled, gas exports could begin in the 2021 to 2023 time frame, the filing indicated. The BC venture, to be known as WCC LNG Ltd., would be supplied with gas from Western Canada fields. During the life of the project, gas also could be sourced from other North American basins. In May ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum International, which are sponsoring the proposed Golden Pass Products LNG terminal in Sabine Pass, TX, launched pre-filing for their proposed 15 mmty project (see NGI, May 20).

A U.S. District Court judge in Washington, DC, has dismissed a challenge by Bloomberg LP of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Dodd-Frank regulations of the multi-trillion over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market. At the same time, a coalition of associations urged the agency to maintain the $8 billion threshold for swap dealing activity that a participant may engage in before it becomes subject to the requirements.

Under pressure from an activist investor, Spectra Energy Corp. (SE) said last week it would drop down all of its remaining U.S. transmission and storage assets to Spectra Energy Partners (SEP) by the end of the year.

Oneok Inc.’s energy services segment, which markets and contracts to provide natural gas and transportation, has “contributed greatly” to the company’s past, but it’s no longer a good fit with today’s marketplace, CEO John Gibson said in a conference call last week.

Rents and royalties reported on Pennsylvania income tax returns from 2006 to 2010 have increased 61% statewide, and 119% in counties with Marcellus Shale activity, according to a report by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (AIPP). Rent and royalty income for landowners and mineral rights owners in the state rose 34% in counties with no Marcellus activity.

Shares of Spectra Energy Corp. (SE) spiked Wednesday the day after the company said it would drop down all of its remaining U.S. transmission and storage assets to Spectra Energy Partners (SEP) by the end of the year. Analysts joined investors in cheering the move and raised their ratings on SE shares to “buy.”