Hydraulic

The city council in Carson, CA, a Los Angeles suburb located in the oil-producing area surrounding the Long Beach-LA Harbor, on Wednesday night set a 45-day ban on oil/natural gas drilling as it considers plans by Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) to step up directional drilling from a 6.5-acre site in the city. The ban could be extended up to two years.

Bitter cold, high winds and heavy snows have been gripping much of the country — and the economy — and the same is true in the North Dakota oil patch. Drilling and production statistics for December show that even heavy industrial activities like drilling and well completion have their limits when it comes to extreme weather.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday released revised underground injection control (UIC) program permitting guidance for wells that use diesel fuels during fracking activities.

A fresh frontier for shale drilling is opening up in Canada’s Northwest Territories, a new well approval by the National Energy Board (NEB) has confirmed.

House Democrats have called on the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to finalize “long overdue guidance” expeditiously for oil and natural gas hydraulic fracturing (fracking) activities using diesel fuel, and to reject any industry efforts to weaken or delay it.

In the first test of new statewide oil and natural gas drilling chemical disclosure rules established last year, the Colorado Oil/Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) will flex its regulatory muscles soon in pending enforcement activity (Rule 205A) involving 11 operators.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) best practices need to be improved, but the drilling practice can be done safely, according to Stanford University’s Steven Chu, who served as Energy Secretary during the first Obama administration.

In a memo sent to Republicans lawmakers Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said the House will take up a bill, theProtecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act, in the coming weeks that would restrict the Obama administration’s ability to impose duplicative regulations on fracking on federal and tribal lands.

In a memo sent to Republicans lawmakers Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said the House will take up a bill, theProtecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act, in the coming weeks that would restrict the Obama administration’s ability to impose duplicative regulations on fracking on federal and tribal lands.