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Wisconsin Energy (WE) is eyeing natural gas distribution infrastructure upgrades as one of several capital investment opportunities in the next two to four years, CEO Gale Klappa told financial analysts Thursday in reporting 2Q2011 earnings of $98 million (41 cents/share), compared with $88 million (37 cent/share) in 2Q2010. Current efforts nationally to update gas pipeline rules and regulations are expected to create the need for more investment in WE’s gas pipeline system, and the company expects to also have the opportunity to buy some existing gas-fired cogeneration facilities that the state of Wisconsin owns and operates. “We still have to deal with aging gas and electric infrastructure,” said Klappa. “I am very confident we will be seeing additional capital spending in the 2013-14 time frame related to additional regulation on gas distribution and pipeline safety. Those issues are being debated right now by FERC [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] and the Congress.”

It’s only been two and a half months, but Range Resources Corp. said its decision to leave the Barnett Shale is already paying off.

August natural gas made it four in a row and continued to march higher Wednesday, prompted by reports showing extended heat over the eastern two-thirds of the country. At the closing bell August had risen 7.0 cents to $4.403 and September had tacked on 7.5 cents to $4.387. August crude oil rose 62 cents to $98.05/bbl.

Four environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in federal court, alleging the agency illegally approved dozens of oil and gas projects in the Piceance Basin in western Colorado without analyzing the impacts on air quality.

Four environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in federal court on Monday, alleging the agency illegally approved dozens of oil and gas projects in the Piceance Basin in western Colorado without analyzing the impacts on air quality.

The record-breaking drought gripping Texas has the state’s reservoir/aquifer managers eyeing water levels and issuing warnings. But lower water reserves apparently have not seriously affected oil and gas activities in the state, at least not yet.

Four environmental groups are challenging the federal government’s approval of new deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), specifically targeting exploration now under way by a Royal Dutch Shell plc subsidiary.

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Randy Huffman told NGI’s Shale Daily it is unlikely that the DEP would honor a request by the City of Morgantown to issue a stop work order on two Marcellus Shale gas wells in the city’s industrial park.

City officials in Morgantown, WV, were scheduled to meet Tuesday night to discuss two resolutions targeting two Marcellus Shale gas wells in the city’s industrial park and take up a proposed watershed protection ordinance.