Examined

Following the release earlier this year of a report on alternative technologies for using flared natural gas, the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) in North Dakota is set to launch a bi-fuel (natural gas/diesel) drilling rig power source in a demonstration project starting early next year, the center’s associate director told NGI’s Shale Daily Thursday.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair John Wellinghoff and a California regulator examined the Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) emergency response center in downtown Los Angeles during a national regulators’ meeting, and they found a potential national model, according to Michel Florio, a member of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is being examined as an alternative fuel to diesel for locomotive engines by a collaboration of Canadian National Railway (CN), Westport Innovations and Gaz Metro Transportation Solutions (GMTS). They are seeking to develop a prototype LNG engine for locomotives by 2013. The project has obtained a $2.4 million grant from the Canadian government-backed Sustainable Development Technology Canada, a nonprofit that finances development of clean technologies. The project initially will concentrate on an LNG system for locomotives, both in plant and field settings. GMTS will provide LNG and fuel supply logistical expertise while CN will provide the locomotive expertise, the partners said.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee last Thursday said it opened an inquiry into the potential health and environmental risks associated with hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracing) of unconventional natural gas resources.

A bonus and incentive plan used by Royal Dutch/Shell Group apparently is being examined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to determine whether it encouraged upper level management to overstate oil and gas reserves.

A bonus and incentive plan used by Royal Dutch/Shell Group is being examined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to determine whether it encouraged upper level management to overstate oil and gas reserves, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

A claim by a former employee for the Financial Times’ (FT) subsidiary Resource Data International (RDI) Monday before a California state Senate committee alleging that FT’s Gas Daily natural gas price index was manipulated by traders, brought a prompt retort from Gas Daily’s current owner that the account was a “misrepresentation of the facts.”

Gas compression company Hanover Compressor announced last Tuesday that it is being examined by the Securities and Exchange Commission for some apparent financial miscalculations involving a joint venture in Nigeria with Royal Dutch/Shell. It is restating financial results for 2000 and for the first nine months if 2001, lowering its net income by a total of $8.9 million, because it reported income — mainly from the Nigerian joint venture — that it didn’t have. As if that wasn’t enough, the company reported lower than expected earnings for the fourth quarter and cut its earnings forecast for 2002.

A California utility consumer advocate and a Kentucky-basedeconomist/consultant offered a national meeting of state regulatorycommissioners in San Diego last week different prescriptions forproviding long-term relief to retail consumers in the midst ofvarious electric industry restructuring efforts scattered aroundthe nation.