Meantime

The cash- and employee-strapped Colorado state government is battling a growing oil and gas drilling permit backlog created by a combination of a 70% jump in applications between 2007 and 2010 and the recession, which shrank state government. However, oil and gas industry representatives are praising state officials for attempting to address the problem.

While there are probably no significant shale gas supplies coming out of Nevada any time soon, there are some longer-term prospects, and in the meantime state oil and gas stakeholders are keeping an eye on shale developments in the Rockies and Western Canada, according to a gas engineering specialist at the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

With California facing a $42 billion budget deficit, the state’s year-old law (AB 118) to boost alternative fuel vehicles may be stalled.

With California facing a $42 billion budget deficit, the state’s year-old law (AB 118) to boost alternative fuel vehicles may be stalled.

Sempra Energy’s Costa Azul facility in North Baja California, Mexico, the first liquefied natural gas (LN G) receiving terminal on the West Coast of North America, may sit mostly idle after it is deemed commercially available later this spring. Nevertheless, Sempra will earn a profit based on capacity payments from part of Royal Dutch Shell that holds a contract for half of the 1 Bcf/d terminal’s throughput.

Policymakers and regulators are coming up with half-measures to improve conditions in the natural gas market, while in the meantime the “ship is going down,” said an executive with Dow Chemical last Monday.

Increasing demands and roadblocks by aboriginal groups in Canada are contributing to fears the Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline Project may suffer the same fate of a similar Mackenzie project nearly 25 years ago, which was abandoned in the face of aboriginal rights claims.

Increasing demands and roadblocks by aboriginal groups in Canada are contributing to fears the Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline Project may suffer the same fate of a similar Mackenzie project nearly 25 years ago, which was abandoned in the face of aboriginal rights claims.

It will take two to three years before the energy situation in California is straightened out, and in the meantime, it is likely to get worse before it gets better, Reliant Energy Vice President John Stout said Friday.