Formal

Calling it dangerous and potentially harmful to its ability to finance natural gas pipeline safety upgrades, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) last week filed a formal reply to California regulators, strongly rejecting a safety staff recommendation of a $2.25 billion for the utility’s part in the Sept. 9, 2010 pipeline rupture and explosion in San Bruno, CA.

Once exports of liquefied U.S. natural gas begin, the global gas market will get its formal introduction to the hub in Louisiana named Henry. The response might only be a shrug, or even less. But gas markets will feel the hub’s presence, IHS Inc. Vice Chairman Dan Yergin told a Houston audience.

As a formal set of proposed rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) moves through preliminary public review in California, Gov. Jerry Brown last Wednesday expressed confidence that his state’s oil and gas regulators would apply “science and common sense” to frack regulations.

A Pennsylvania official said royalties from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling on public lands will add about $60 million to state coffers this year.

While other stakeholders have been critical of California’s preliminary draft hydraulic fracturing (fracking) rules, two energy attorneys with the firm of K&L Gates consider the rules’ proposed protections for trade secrets to be adequate for shielding exploration and production (E&P) operators’ proprietary information tied to fracking.

In the austere language and statistics of formal economics, the United States Department of Energy has posted a vivid message to Canadian natural gas and oil exporters.

In the austere language and statistics of formal economics, the United States Department of Energy has posted a vivid message to Canadian natural gas and oil exporters.

Piedmont Natural Gas is investing $180 million in Marcellus Shale-focused Constitution Pipeline Co. LLC to join Williams Partners LP and Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. as an equity holder in the project.

FERC Commissioner Philip Moeller last week said a formal rulemaking may be required to resolve the inconsistencies in scheduling so that natural gas pipelines can better serve power generation markets. But an opposite opinion is held by Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, who earlier this month suggested that a rulemaking was not the way to go (see NGI, Sept. 10).