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Environmental groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in California claiming that state regulators had failed to “consider or evaluate” the risks of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. announced Monday that it had closed on the sale of a majority of its leasehold in the northern Utica Shale to an undisclosed buyer for $43 million in cash.

Two legislators in Ohio, well-known foes of shale development, have introduced a pair of bills designed to reverse a gag order that they say prevents medical personnel from doing their jobs as it relates to providing chemical information about hydraulic fracture (frack) fluids.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday said domestic natural gas consumption is on track to grow this year, while marketed production will slow.

Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC and Sabine Pass LNG LP have asked FERC for authorization to add facilities to their liquefaction and export project, now under construction in Cameron Parish, LA, and to expedite construction of the project’s second stage (the third and fourth liquefaction trains).

With $2.375 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) is working on two projects with Northwestern University researchers and a startup they have created, NuMat Technologies to develop lightweight, affordable natural gas vehicle (NGV) fuel tanks for passenger cars, along with natural gas compressors that can fuel the vehicles in the home or office settings. The projects are part of DOE’s Methane Opportunities for Vehicular Energy program. GTI plans to develop “a low-pressure adsorbent material” to be used in gas storage tanks designed exclusively for NGVs to overcome the current heavy, large tanks that must withstand pressures of up to 3,600 psi, which adds to the cost and weight of the NGVs compared to gasoline and diesel vehicles. GTI received $1.5 million from DOE to develop the advanced adsorbed natural gas technology for fueling tanks and $875,000 to develop a unique low-pressure NGV fueling technology.

International bankers have “temporarily prevailed” on the lawsuit challenging the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) rule limiting speculative trading in commodity derivatives, but the “struggle isn’t over,” said CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton Tuesday.

The recent construction wave of natural gas pipeline infrastructure might have flattened basis differentials, but not forever, according to BNP Paribas analyst Teri Viswanath. More infrastructure will be needed to avoid market constraints and basis spikes down the road, she wrote in a market note last week.

California regulators have approved a one-time contractual waiver to allow Chevron Corp. to lower its obligation for capacity on Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) backbone natural gas transmission system by 9,000 Dth/d. The waiver is effective through the end of Chevron’s three-year contract with SoCalGas on Sept. 30, 2014. Involved in the case is Chevron’s role as a California gas producer delivering up to 25,000 Dth/d into the SoCalGas system. Chevron’s total capacity on the SoCalGas system will drop to 16,000 Dth/d. The change was necessitated when the gas utility was forced to close one of the interconnecting pipelines used by Chevron in 2011 because of demands from the owner of the pipeline right-of-way. Since that time, SoCalGas decided it would not build a replacement line, forcing Chevron to lower the capacity volumes covered in its multi-year contract.