Fire

Rapid-fire events in the energy sector upheaval preclude development of a comprehensive national energy policy right now, according to an energy expert with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.

Michael Peevey, long-time president of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is under fire from state utility consumer group The Utility Reform Network (TURN) for allegedly railroading through the commission a research project that could cost private sector energy customers up to another $150 million. TURN is urging state lawmakers to “rein in” Peevey for apparently pushing through CPUC an arrangement between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the state’s major investor-owned utilities to create a cooperative research institute. CPUC plans on Thursday to consider authorizing the utilities to cover research project costs with LLNL of up to $152.19 million.

A fire last Tuesday at Bill Barrett Corp.’s (BBG) Dry Canyon compressor station in its West Tavaputs natural gas field in northeastern Utah’s Uinta Basin sent two employees to the hospital and shut in an estimated 88 MMcfe/d net.

A fire Tuesday morning at Bill Barrett Corp.’s (BBG) Dry Canyon compressor station in its West Tavaputs natural gas field in northeastern Utah’s Uinta Basin sent two employees to the hospital and shut in production.

SandRidge Energy Inc., which has been under fire from investors, has adopted a rights plan to counter any offers to take over the company that management deems to be unfair to investors.

A research team led by the University of Texas at Austin (UT) is collaborating with nine natural gas producers on a major field study to measure methane emissions at onshore gas well sites, about which only a handful of empirical data exist.

Trunkline Gas Co.’s proposal to abandon by sale 770 miles of its system has come under fire at FERC from Michigan customers served by the pipeline because it would reduce Trunkline’s service into the state to a single natural gas pipeline from the current two lines.

Trunkline Gas Co.’s proposal to abandon by sale 770 miles of its system has come under fire at FERC from Michigan customers served by the pipeline because it would reduce Trunkline’s service into the state to a single natural gas pipeline from the current two lines.

In the midst of its improbable oil and natural gas boom, North Dakota is coming clean on a dirty little secret — flaring of more than one-third of its gas supplies produced in its rapidly expanding Bakken Shale formation’s record-breaking oil production. While the latest analyses look closely at North Dakota’s experience there is no exact measurement of how much of the nation’s flaring is centered there; a reasonable guess is 25%, sources say.