First

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tuesday released its first-ever rapid ecoregional assessment (REA), which takes a broad look at the ecology of the Colorado Plateau.

With the first 70 fueling stations in place for natural gas vehicles (NGV), the national network for a “natural gas highway” is set to surpass last year’s growth in 2013, according to Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which said Tuesday that its core business of building fueling facilities shot up 87% last year from 2011.

Operators of horizontal oil and natural gas wells in Ohio face a bevy of regulatory changes — including quarterly production reports, a $25,000 per well impact fee, and new testing and disposal requirements for drilling waste — under Gov. John Kasich’s biennial budget proposal.

Linn Energy LLC and LinnCo LLC are acquiring Berry Petroleum Co. for $4.3 billion, including debt, in a transaction said to be the first-ever acquisition of a C-corporation by an upstream limited liability company (LLC) or master limited partnership (MLP).

Acknowledging that the boom in natural gas has led to cleaner-burning power and greater energy independence in the United States, President Obama Tuesday in his first State of the Union Address of his second term vowed to cut red tape to speed up the permitting process for new oil and gas permits on public lands.

Acknowledging that the boom in natural gas has led to cleaner-burning power and greater energy independence in the United States, President Obama Tuesday in his first State of the Union Address of his second term vowed to cut red tape to speed up the permitting process for new oil and gas permits on public lands.

Infrastructure projects, acquisitions and contracting activity — particularly in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas — served to lift crude oil pipeline throughputs for NuStar GP Holdings LLC last year. Some of NuStar’s South Texas pipeline assets had been underutilized.

Colorado’s oil production last year passed the 40 million bbl mark for the first time in 50 years, while natural gas and coalbed methane (CBM) production were down in the face of stubbornly low prices, according to preliminary data from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC).

California’s natural gas power generation bill may be higher than normal in the first months of 2013 as the 2,200 MW San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station was shuttered. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chair Allison Macfarland this week was at the plant for an update but hasn’t indicated when at least one of the two units would restart. Majority owner/operator Southern California Edison Co. has asked the NRC to allow at least Unit 2 to come back to 70% of capacity.