Going

With seemingly more oil and gas development going on in Texas than ever, perhaps it’s time to finally change the name of the state’s principal regulator of the industry to something that reflects its purpose, something other than Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC).

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) revision of distribution figures for impact fee revenue generated by Act 13 is mixed news for municipalities, with a bigger pot of revenue to divvy up, but most will get a smaller share.

With oil production booming in the Permian Basin of West Texas, projects are being developed to serve producers wanting to get their oil to Houston. But going west on a converted portion of Kinder Morgan’s El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) system could one day be an option, too.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) this week sued New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration to obtain documents that would show how the state has drafted its plan to permit high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling for unconventional natural gas.

Chemical industry executives are going after strategic acquisitions and new product development to lift growth in the coming year in the face of “escalating input costs, stiffer competition and a struggling global economy,” according to a survey by KPMG LLP.

The cash market overall surged on average by 17 cents Tuesday as traders scrambled to make up volumes not purchased going into the long holiday weekend, screen prices initiated a solid advance to close at the high end of the day’s range, and traders hinted at expectations of a bullish storage report Thursday. At the close of futures trading, October was 5.5 cents higher at $2.854 and November had added 3.7 cents to $3.000. October crude oil tumbled $1.17 to $95.30/bbl.

Shale natural gas produced in the Northeast will supply more than 80% of the physical gas going to New York City by 2025, according to ICF International.

Lower natural gas liquids (NGL) prices weighed down 2Q2012 earnings for both DCP Midstream Partners LP (DPM) and Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE), the companies’ executives said in separate conference calls with analysts Wednesday.

Work on Shell Pipeline’s Eagle Ford Shale- and Permian Basin-focused Houma, LA, to Houston (Ho-Ho) oil pipeline system reversal is going according to plan, based on shipper requests and new crude production and infrastructure coming online, the company said. Through a Declaratory Order, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently approved the contract rates and capacity allocation for the Ho-Ho Reversal project. The initial phase will move crude oil from connecting pipelines and terminals in East Houston to Nederland, TX, and Port Arthur, TX, thereby supplying the refining complex across the region with crude from the Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin, as well as crude supplies from the Cushing, OK, area. Phase I of the project is designed to complement new pipeline infrastructure that is currently being built to the Houston area. The Royal Dutch Shell plc subsidiary last August said it was considering reversing flows on the 22-inch diameter Ho-Ho system to enable more than 300,000 b/d of crude to be distributed across the Gulf Coast region (see Shale Daily, Aug. 9, 2011).