Five

The 2013 Atlantic Hurricane season is expected to be active, with 16 named storms, including nine hurricanes, five of them major (Category 3 or higher), according to the first tropical storm forecast of the year from Weather Services International (WSI).

Mexico state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has signed a five-year agreement with ExxonMobil Corp. to share technical and scientific information. The agreement renews a previous collaboration agreement between the two companies, said officials. Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December, recently told reporters that Pemex wouldn’t be sold or privatized, but it would be modernized. Pemex, Mexico’s largest company, provides nearly all of its profits to the federal government. Natural gas production in Mexico has risen slightly from a year ago, but it has fallen over the past four years, according to Pemex. In February, gas output was 6.475 Bcf/d, compared with 6.430 Bcf/d a year ago. However, 2012 gas output averaged an estimated 6.385 Bcf/d, versus 6.594 Bcf/d in 2011 and 7.020 Bcf/d in 2010. Mexico also is a net crude oil exporter, but production fell to less than 3 million bbl in 2011 from almost 4 million bbl in 2003-2004.

A district court judge wants the highest court in West Virginia, the Supreme Court of Appeals, to certify whether existing state law allows a company to drill on land where it doesn’t own the surface rights, but it owns the underlying mineral rights.

Researchers from Cleveland State University (CSU) said Ohio counties with significant Marcellus and Utica shale development have seen only a modest increase in job creation in 2012, but those same counties also saw a large increase in retail sales.

Texas will provide $1 million to close a deal with Ascend Performance Materials Texas Inc. to build a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) facility near Houston, Gov. Rick Perry said.

Well permitting in Texas during January was up sharply from a year ago, as were well completions. December crude oil production was also up sharply compared with a year ago, but natural gas production slipped, according to the latest figures from the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC).

Geisinger Health System has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Degenstein Foundation to help complete a study on the health impacts from Marcellus Shale gas drilling, a report eagerly anticipated by officials in at least two states.

The pace of drilling in Pennsylvania has declined by 35% in the first month and a half of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012, but counties rich in liquids and oil are faring better.

FERC has approved Columbia Gas Transmission’s customer settlement that proposes $1.5 billion in upgrades to the pipeline system over the next five years.