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FERC is considering modifications to its policies for evaluating oil pipeline index rate changes and data reporting requirements that would make it easier for shippers to challenge rates that they believe exceed industry costs.

The amount of natural gas traded in the United States increased in 2015 for the first time in four years, with overall trading volumes up 4.1% compared to 2014, according to an analysis of FERC Form 552 submissions by Cornerstone Research.

A lawsuit filed last week against pipeline companies in Louisiana by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SLFPA-E) is an example of a state agency and its lawyers looking for a big payout, the head of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association (LOGA) told NGI Wednesday. A lawyer for the plaintiff, however, said his client only wants the pipelines to do their share of the work in restoring protections for the state’s coast.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday it is planning to exit the physical commodities business, including its remaining holdings of commodities assets and its physical trading operations.

After gaining access earlier this year to a big bundle of onshore and offshore opportunities in the United States, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. now is reworking its strategy to relieve the cost burden and increase production, top executives said last week.

George Phydias Mitchell, 94, who is credited with pioneering unconventional drilling techniques that have opened up North America’s natural gas and oil potential, died Friday at his home in Galveston, TX.

Members of a panel testifying at a hearing of a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs subcommittee last week warned that allowing global conglomerates to own multiple pieces of the production and marketing chain for any commodity, including oil and natural gas, while simultaneously also speculating on the price of those commodities, opens the door to potential manipulation of prices.

Competition from U.S. exporters in Ontario and Quebec has a silver lining for sponsors of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia (BC).

Federal regulators, working with Walter Oil & Gas Corp., said Friday they were continuing to oversee and coordinate response efforts to secure the producer’s South Timbalier Block 220 natural gas well in the shallow Gulf of Mexico (GOM), which blew out last Tuesday and ignited a fire later that night.