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Statoil plans to boost its North American production from less than 100,000 boe/d in 2011 to more than 500,000 boe/d in 2020. In the Bakken and Three Forks shale plays of North Dakota, the company said it will get its oil to market through greatly expanded use of rail transport beginning in September.

While TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline has become controversial in general interest news media and politics, Enbridge Inc.’s. under-the-radar oil pipeline cutting through the nation’s midsection from Illinois to Houston-Port Arthur, TX, has the opposite image. The contrast drew general news media interest over the weekend.

Unconventional oil and gas drilling within the 13 plays tracked by NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count increased by one rig over the previous week to 890 rigs for the week ending Aug. 10. While some of the plays reporting increases or declines in activity were to be expected, others came as a bit of a surprise.

Although among the smaller, less-life threatening of Colorado’s wildfires so far this summer, the Pine Ridge fire along the Western Slope tested the gas industry with the shutting in of more than 100 wells in part of the Piceance Basin (see Daily GPI, July 9), but the response was effective and expected by the gas industry, according to Encana Corp.’s manager in charge on the ground, David Grisso.

Although among the smaller, less-life threatening of Colorado’s wildfires so far this summer, the Pine Ridge fire along the Western Slope tested the gas industry with the shutting in of more than 100 wells in part of the Piceance Basin (see Shale Daily, July 9), but the response was effective and expected by the gas industry, according to Encana Corp.’s manager in charge on the ground, David Grisso.

Even though the Pine Ridge fire in western Colorado near the Piceance Basin was deemed less aggressive and more than 25% contained over the weekend, natural gas operators indicated that they will keep their well operations shut for the foreseeable future and are working closely with local authorities and the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which are overseeing the fire-fighting efforts.

Even though the Pine Ridge fire in western Colorado near the Piceance Basin was deemed less aggressive and more than 25% contained over the weekend, natural gas operators indicated that they will keep their well operations shut for the foreseeable future and are working closely with local authorities and the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which are overseeing the fire-fighting efforts.

The top gas executive for San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) told NGI last week that the combination utility is less than half way toward becoming a “top quartile” gas distribution and transmission pipeline operation and still needs to fulfill almost a dozen federal recommendations made following the September 2010 explosion of a transmission pipeline in San Bruno, CA.

The top gas executive for San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) told NGI Tuesday the combination utility is less than half way toward becoming a “top quartile” gas distribution and transmission pipeline operation but it still needs to fulfill a dozen recommendations from federal regulators following the September 2010 rupture and explosion of the transmission pipeline in San Bruno, CA, he said.