Develop

The five-member California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday denied a long-standing proposal to develop an idle dry natural gas field into an underground storage project beneath a residential community in Sacramento. CPUC members voted 3-2 against the 7.5 Bcf capacity independent project.

Despite previously announced intentions to find a partner to help develop its Eagle Ford Shale acreage, Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. said it has identified a “go-it-alone plan that is attractive to the company.”

NiSource Inc. has clinched two joint ventures (JV) in the Utica Shale with Hilcorp Energy Co. to construct midstream facilities and to develop a “significant acreage block” in the Utica/Point Pleasant formation in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

While the potential is widely recognized, a shale boom in Mexico akin to the rest of North America is unlikely any time soon, an analyst with the Houston office of Wood Mackenzie told NGI.

Calgary-based Talisman Energy is abandoning a project it had considered with Sasol Canada to develop Canada’s first gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility to create transportation fuels from natural gas.

Schlumberger Ltd. and Liquid Robotics Inc. have partnered to develop services for the oil and natural gas industry using the world’s first wave-powered autonomous marine vehicles capable of being deployed in the offshore for up to a year without a crew, fuel or a dedicated support vessel.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved Gasco Energy Inc.’s proposal to develop nearly 1,300 natural gas wells over 15 years in Utah’s Uinta Basin, the agency said Monday.

ExxonMobil Corp. and Russia’s OAO Rosneft on Friday clinched a partnership agreement to develop oil reserves in tight, low-permeability formations in Western Siberia using advanced drilling technologies that ExxonMobil has employed successfully in North America’s onshore.

Florida-based Waste Pro USA has committed to a $100 million program to develop a network of compressed natural gas (CNG) refuse hauling trucks and the fueling stations to support them. It is working to transform a portion of its fleet from diesel to CNG. As part of that longer term effort, the recycling and disposal company said Clean Energy Fuels Corp. would build and operate a CNG fueling station at Waste Pro’s headquarters in Fort Pierce, FL, to support the company’s growing fleet. Permits have been obtained, and the facility is scheduled to be in operation by 3Q2012. About 150 heavy-duty CNG-fueled waste collection and recycling trucks are to be deployed to serve residential and commercial customers. Waste Pro operates in 70 locations in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi.