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A bipartisan group of Michigan House lawmakers is urging its colleagues to consider ways to expand the use of natural gas, offer tax breaks to some producers, get regular reports on the state’s infrastructure and capabilities for natural gas, and put more land with state-owned mineral rights up for oil and natural gas leasing.

A bipartisan group of Michigan House lawmakers is urging its colleagues to consider ways to expand the use of natural gas, offer tax breaks to some oil producers, get regular reports on the state’s infrastructure and capabilities for natural gas, and put more land with state-owned mineral rights up for oil and natural gas leasing.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP said it will expand the natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionator complex at its Sweeny Plant in Old Ocean, TX. Construction is to begin in April for completion in February. The expansion will increase capacity by about 22,000 b/d, or 19%. “One of the main drivers for the project is the rapid development of natural gas, crude oil and NGLs from the shale formations in the region,” said Martin Dale, feedstock procurement manager for Chevron Phillips Chemical. “This expansion positions Chevron Phillips Chemical to take additional raw NGL product from the Eagle Ford and Permian basins and ultimately convert the NGLs into products for consumer and commercial use.” The fractionation unit at Sweeny was built in the 1960s and is composed of two trains with current capacity of 116,000 b/d.

MDU Resources Group Inc.’s Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. has set a new Bakken Shale production record of 3,500 net boe/d from its operated wells. Including nonoperated wells, production exceeds 5,000 net boe/d, the company said Monday.

Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) announced Tuesday that it has approved plans by TransCanada Corp. unit Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL) to expand its Northwest Mainline, which would link natural gas supplies in the Upper Peace River region to markets in Canada and the United States.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said it would sponsor four state legislative proposals to expand the regulatory panel’s safety enforcement authority, particularly as it relaters to pipeline safety. The CPUC said three of its proposals are the result of recommendations made by an independent review panel that the commission convened following the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. pipeline explosion in San Bruno. Assembly Bill 1514 would authorize the CPUC to issue civil penalties to a utility or excavator failing to comply with the state’s one-call law (dial 811) prior to beginning digging, and another measure (AB 1694) would permit the CPUC to employ a risk-based approach to determining the frequency of inspections for master-metered natural gas and propane systems. A third measure — still unnumbered in the legislative process — would provide gas utilities with expedited local permitting for pipeline inspection, remediation and replacement work. The fourth measure deals with the CPUC oversight of railroads.

Marathon Oil Corp., which began 2012 as a pure-play exploration and production (E&P) company, has its sights trained on two big shale plays in the United States: the Eagle Ford and the Bakken, company officials said Wednesday.

Recent production test results from the first two horizontal wells completed in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) in Louisiana have been encouraging and there is likely more good news to come, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) secretary.

California regulators reiterated on Thursday their strong reliance on energy efficiency programs and the need to provide utility shareholder incentives to expand the efforts. In doing so they ignored calls from consumer advocates to end the rewards to shareholders.