Earlier

Two major Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulatory reforms — real-time reporting of swap transactions and swap dealer (SD) registration — began earlier this week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said.

The Senate earlier this week passed legislation that would allow a natural gas pipeline to be built through the Denali National Park in Alaska. However, the House of Representatives failed to act on the measure before the 112th Congress adjourned.

Lone Star Fractionator I in Mont Belvieu, TX, a 100,000 b/d natural gas liquids (NGL) facility designed to handle prolific NGL production in the Permian and Eagle Ford regions, is now in service, according to Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and Regency Energy Partners.

The Laclede Group Inc. is buying Southern Union Co.’s Missouri Gas Energy (MGE) and New England Gas Co. (NEG) utilities for $1.035 billion in cash and debt. Southern Union was purchased earlier this year by Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) an affiliate of Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP), which focuses on the midstream.

Schlumberger Ltd. and Baker Hughes Inc. said they plan to report lower-than-expected profits for the final quarter of 2012 because of a slowdown in North American drilling activity and overcapacity in pressure pumping services.

The Laclede Group Inc. is buying Southern Union Co.’s Missouri Gas Energy (MGE) and New England Gas Co. (NEG) utilities for $1.035 billion in cash and debt. Southern Union was purchased earlier this year by Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) an affiliate of Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP), which focuses on the midstream.

The Canadian government earlier this month granted Chinese state-controlled industry a spot in the North American oil and gas industry with its approval of a merger by CNOOC Ltd. of Nexen Inc. (see NGI, Dec. 10), but it pledged that the toehold will not be allowed to grow into a dominant role.

A landowners group in central New York that supports natural gas development has established a legal fund to fight local bans and moratoriums on hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Lenape Resources Inc., an oil and natural gas producer based in New York, has filed a lawsuit against a town in Livingston County for enacting a local drilling ban, and against the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for failing to rein in the town over the ban.