Final

A bipartisan coalition of senators has expressed concerns that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is attempting to expand its definition of diesel fuels in the draft permitting guidance to gain more federal control over hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

A citizens’ advisory task force on Wednesday submitted its final recommendation for cleaning up the air in the Upper Green River Basin to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), prompting praise from Gov. Matt Mead.

In what it said would be its final update of evacuation and shut-in production statistics related to Hurricane Isaac, the Bureau of Safety Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said Tuesday that two production platforms and a single rig remained evacuated in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Based on data from offshore operator reports submitted as of 11:30 a.m. CDT Tuesday, BSEE estimated 4.73% (213 MMcf/d) of natural gas production and 4.16% (57,439 b/d) of oil output in the GOM was shut in. All of those statistics peaked in the immediate aftermath of Isaac, when BSEE reported 509 production platforms and 50 rigs evacuated, and an estimated 75.52% (3.264 Bcf/d) of gas production and 94.99% (1.311 million b/d) of oil production was shut in (see Daily GPI, Aug. 31).

While President Obama pledged to support domestic oil and natural gas development, he said he “will not let oil companies write this country’s energy plan.”

The Democrats’ national energy platform is heavy on clean energy, but it leaves the door open for the safe and responsible development of the nation’s “cheap, abundant natural gas” reserves.

Mid-Atlantic power generators Thursday opposed a suggestion that generators be mandated to commit to firm pipeline capacity for the delivery of natural gas. At the fifth and final technical conference on the coordination of natural gas and power markets, some generators also said they viewed shale gas as a doubled-edged sword for the Mid-Atlantic region, supplying it with abundant, low-cost supplies while at the same time putting pressure on an already over-taxed pipeline infrastructure.

Maryland’s portion of the Marcellus Shale may be limited to only the two westernmost counties, but its development would benefit the entire state, Drew Cobbs, executive director of the Maryland Petroleum Council, told an audience in Hagerstown, MD, on Wednesday.

U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar Thursday offered the final version of the department’s OCS [Outer Continental Shelf] Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017, sticking to tried and true areas in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and holding out delayed possibilities in Alaska.

Relatively warm weather during winter’s final months and a halting economic upturn continued to keep a lid on natural gas sales during the first quarter of 2012, according to NGI’s 1Q2012 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking, which found a majority of companies reporting sales declining or flat compared with 1Q2011.