Little

In the midst of its improbable oil and natural gas boom, North Dakota is coming clean on a dirty little secret — flaring of more than one-third of its gas supplies produced in its rapidly expanding Bakken Shale formation’s record-breaking oil production. While the latest analyses look closely at North Dakota’s experience there is no exact measurement of how much of the nation’s flaring is centered there; a reasonable guess is 25%, sources say.

In the midst of its oil and natural gas boom, North Dakota is coming clean on a dirty little secret — flaring of more than one-third of its gas supplies produced in its rapidly expanding Bakken Shale formation’s record-breaking oil production. While the latest analyses look closely at North Dakota’s experience, there is no exact measurement of how much of the nation’s flaring is centered there; a reasonable guess is 25%, sources say.

Just days after a town in western New York adopted a one-year moratorium on oil and natural gas activities, the town’s only operator made a rare move and decided to shut down its wells and pipelines there, halting royalty payments and free natural gas to landowners.

Wyoming Oil and Gas Supervisor Tom Doll suddenly resigned Thursday, Gov. Matt Mead’s office announced late in the day. The resignation came a little more than a week after Doll publicly lambasted the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its handling of the well water and natural gas drilling case near Pavillion, WY, that has evolved into lingering state-federal issue.

The cash market on average was unchanged Wednesday as weather forecasts for major metropolitan areas showed little in the way of near-term heat, although warmth was forecast for the Midwest and Ohio Valley into the Father’s Day weekend. Physical prices were within a few pennies of unchanged at most points and at the close of futures trading July had eased 4.7 cents to $2.185 and August had slipped 5.1 cents to $2.236. July crude oil shed 70 cents to $82.62/bbl.

The nation’s energy capital will get a little bigger in the coming years as Irving, TX-based ExxonMobil Corp. expands its Houston campus, which is under development, to accommodate employees it will relocate from Fairfax, VA, and Akron, OH. Affected will be the Fairfax offices of ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Co.; ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co.; ExxonMobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties Marketing Co.; the Akron-based employees of ExxonMobil Chemical Co.; and select positions from ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co. and ExxonMobil Chemical Co. now at the company’s Baytown, TX, refinery complex. The new campus will have multiple low-rise office buildings, laboratory, conference and training centers and facilities such as child care, a wellness center and other amenities. Construction began in 2011 at the 385-acre wooded site near the intersection of I-45 and the Hardy Toll Road. The facility will accommodate about 10,000 employees who will move to the new campus in phases beginning in early 2014. Full occupancy for employees is expected by 2015.

North America’s largest recycling/waste management natural gas-powered fleet cleaned up it act just a little more Friday with the opening of a new compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station in the Houston area at Conroe, TX. Waste Management said it now has five CNG-fueled collection vehicles in the Houston area, and will have an additional 35 CNG-powered vehicles by the end of this year. A public station, the Conroe fueling facility, will service Waste Management’s local fleet and sell CNG to commercial fleet operators. Waste Management operates more than 1,400 CNG vehicles, the largest fleet in North America, and a spokesperson said that for every Class 8 diesel truck the company replaces with CNG, diesel use is replaced by an average of 8,000 gallons annually, which cuts annual greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 22 metric tons. The self-service “Clean N’ Green station was built by California-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp.

Both cash and futures markets fell Tuesday following weather reports that suggested a mild March and incorporated little in the way of blocking patterns necessary for any large-scale cold influx. Notable exceptions were New England and eastern points, which experienced double-digit price erosion as almost spring-like conditions were forecast for Boston and portions of the East Coast.

The Interior Department and Energy Department (DOE) budget for fiscal year (FY) 2013 have little in them for oil and natural gas producers to cheer about. President Obama calls for the repeal of oil and gas tax breaks, a new onshore inspection fee, a hike in the existing offshore inspection fee and the repeal of royalty incentives for “deep gas” production on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).