Memorandum

Russia’s Gazprom and Japan Far East Gas Co. Ltd. have signed a memorandum of understanding for the Vladivostok-LNG project that outlines their cooperation on the Russian liquefaction and export project and arrangements for marketing of its output in Japan, Gazprom said Monday.

Under a five-year memorandum of understanding (MOU), Sandia National Laboratories and SRI International have partnered to explore, test and evaluate a range of hydrogen and natural gas fuel systems and components for transportation. The MOU is the first agreement in Sandia’s new Center for Infrastructure Research and Innovation (CIRI), an alternative fuel research facility whose goal is to accelerate hydrogen and natural gas infrastructure technologies. The collaboration also will capitalize on research at Sandia’s Combustion Research Facility (CRF). CIRI will be located at Sandia’s Livermore Valley Open Campus, adjacent to the CRF.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) have signed an interagency memorandum of understanding (MOU) to begin researching the effects of human exposure to airborne emissions from shale gas drilling sites.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) negotiated between state and federal regulators could end the stalemate over the contentious issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a Texas official told a House panel last Wednesday.

The federal government and states would reach a compromise on regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) if the parties agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the issue, a Texas official told a House panel Wednesday.

Gazprom Chairman Alexey Miller and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) President Zhou Jiping signed a memorandum of understanding for the companies to cooperate on a project to send natural gas to China via an eastern route pipeline. “The signed document is of long-term strategic nature; it determines the parameters of Russian natural gas supplies to China via the eastern route and establishes the framework for a 30-year contract for gas supplies from Russia to China,” Miller said. CNPC is the largest state-owned petroleum company in China. Gazprom and CNPC signed an agreement of strategic cooperation in 2004 that covers consideration of supplying Russian gas to China. Opportunities are also being explored for joint gas processing and gas chemical projects in eastern Russia and in other countries, Gazprom said (see Daily GPI, March 15).

Tundra Energy Marketing Ltd. and CN, Canada’s national railway company, have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a crude oil car loading terminal in southwestern Manitoba, near the border with Saskatchewan, to serve Bakken oil producers in the two provinces, the companies said Thursday.

India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC) announced Friday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ConocoPhillips to explore and develop shale and deepwater resources in India and North America.

Crestwood Midstream Partners LP has signed a memorandum of understanding with Mountaineer Keystone LLC to build a 42-mile natural gas gathering system in northeast West Virginia, a project that would for the first time open the Marcellus Shale to the Houston-based midstream partnership.