Fire

After a chemical disclosure bill was shot down last year, critics of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in California are attempting to rekindle a fire in Sacramento to heat up both regulators and legislators, according to a report in Thursday’s Los Angeles Times. Focused on ways to create jobs, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration has shied away from the issue, fearing it could stymie growth in the energy sector.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined a Chesapeake Energy Corp. subsidiary $565,000 for three incidents that occurred in the northern part of the state in the Marcellus Shale, including a blowout at a Bradford County well last April (see Shale Daily, April 25, 2011).

Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light released a position paper on Marcellus Shale drilling Sunday, outlining changes that need to be made before drilling could be viewed as acceptable through a moral compass. The organization said it would support shale drilling if it replaced coal and other fossil fuels quickly, if the state enacted a drilling tax and if overall community and environmental impacts were reduced. A copy of the document is available at www.paipl.org.

Due to facility damage caused by a flash fire that occurred during a welding job at its Herscher Storage Facility (see Daily GPI, Aug. 17), NGPL declared a force majeure event at Compressor Station 201 in Kankakee County, IL. Effective Thursday until further notice the Midwestern-Kankakee interconnect is unavailable, NGPL said.

Under fire in lawsuits filed on behalf of victims of the San Bruno pipeline rupture last September, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) fired back at its accusers, saying it was not blaming residents and other third-parties for the natural gas transmission line explosion.

A joint criminal investigation has been launched regarding the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) pipeline rupture last September that resulted in an explosion and fire that killed eight people and wreaked havoc in a San Bruno residential neighborhood about 10 miles south of San Francisco, according to a brief disclosure by PG&E in its June 9 8-K filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Irate natural gas shippers are trying to light a fire under a forthcoming review of TransCanada Corp.’s eastbound mainline (TCPL) from Alberta, calling for accelerated work on a restructuring of sharply increased tolls.

Irate natural gas shippers are trying to light a fire under a forthcoming review of TransCanada Corp.’s eastbound mainline (TCPL) from Alberta, calling for accelerated work on a restructuring of sharply increased tolls.

With the onshore oil rig count “on fire,” Raymond James & Associates Inc. on Monday raised its U.S. onshore rig forecast for 2011 by 3% and initiated a 2012 forecast that is 9% higher year/year (y/y).