James

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral James A. Watson IV has been tapped to be director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environment Enforcement (BSEE). Watson will assume his new post on Dec. 1, succeeding Michael R. Bromwich. Bromwich will stay on through December as counselor to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to ensure a smooth transition of leadership. BSEE is one of two agencies that were created to succeed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement on Oct. 1 (see NGI, Sept. 19). It is responsible for enforcing safety and environmental regulations for oil and natural gas operations on the Outer Continental Shelf, including permitting and research, inspections, offshore regulatory programs, and oil spill response. Watson currently is the Coast Guard’s director of prevention policy for marine safety, security and stewardship in Washington, DC. He served as deputy commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic Area Command in April 2010. And in June 2010 he was designated the federal on-scene coordinator for all-of-government response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has tapped U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral James A. Watson IV to be director of the Bureau of Safety and Environment Enforcement (BSEE).

The near-term outlook for oil prices has blurred but the outlook for U.S. natural gas prices is more in focus — and it’s not a pleasant picture, according to analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc.

The chief of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said Thursday he was considering whether to extend a 60-day comment period on DEC’s hydraulic fracturing (fracking) report, which was issued in July.

The Bartonville, TX, Town Council on March 30 instituted a 90-day moratorium on new permits related to natural gas drilling and production.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused the Feb. 19 explosion of a TransCanada Corp. natural gas pipeline in a remote area of northern Ontario.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused Saturday night’s explosion of a TransCanada Corp. natural gas pipeline in northern Ontario.

Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, has requested all of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) documents related to its investigation of water well contamination in North Texas by Range Resources Corp.

James Dupree has been named by BP plc to take over the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) division, which is based in Houston. BP is the largest leaseholder in the GOM. Dupree, who was named senior vice president of the offshore U.S. region, replaces Neil Shaw, who was tapped to lead the company’s Centralized Developments Organization, a global exploration and production unit. Dupree recently was in charge of BP’s oil and gas business in Russia; he previously was in charge of activities in Kazakhstan. Dupree was based in Houston from 2000 to 2002 when he helmed the company’s GOM deepwater production, drilling, exploration and facility fabrication unit.