Department

A scientific assessment of well stimulation in California that drew differing reactions when released earlier this month will be subjected to the further scrutiny of an interagency working group created Wednesday by California Gov. Jerry Brown.

As shale oil and natural gas development continues to ramp up across the country, it is important to ensure that the nation’s midstream infrastructure is up to the task of handling the increased production, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API), which on Tuesday announced the creation of a midstream department.

Wild Well Control on Friday started the lengthy process of removing the wellhead at a Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. site in Monroe County, OH, that’s been leaking uncontrollably since Dec. 13 (see Shale Daily, Dec. 15).

With more than 1,000 horizontal shale well permits issued to date in West Virginia, and with only about 5% of unconventional oil and gas reserves under development there, state regulators are confronting a pile of paperwork that has created a backlog of pending permit applications and slowed production in some instances.

Interpipe Co., a global steel pipe supplier with North American offices in Houston, said Monday it has reached a settlement with the U.S. Commerce Department regarding its imposition earlier in the month of a higher tariff on tubular steel (pipe) imported from the Ukraine, South Korea and seven other nations (see Daily GPI, July 15).

An oil spill Thursday morning on the Plains All American Pipeline in Los Angeles near the concrete-covered Los Angeles River, which long ago was turned into a regional flood control system, was contained before it could cause serious damage.

A piece of the nuclear world lurks in oilfields, and it has reared its unwanted head in the Williston Basin of North Dakota, with reports continuing of illegally dumped oilfield byproducts from the Bakken Shale that contain naturally occurring radioactive waste.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Tuesday voted out to the Senate floor nominations for high-ranking Department of Energy (DOE) and Interior Department offices.

President Obama Wednesday announced his intent to nominate a prominent Washington, DC, attorney with extensive experience in environmental law to a high-level position in the Department of Interior.