Nation

Protesters aiming to “Stop the Frack Attack” were planning to hold a three-day meeting in the nation’s capital at the end of this week for obstructionist training sessions and lobbying of Congress, to be followed by a Saturday afternoon demonstration on the West Lawn of the Capitol.

The United States could achieve “near energy independence” within 20 years if the nation’s top leaders enact an energy policy that promotes the country’s abundant onshore and offshore natural gas and oil resources, Royal Dutch Shell plc CEO Peter Voser said Thursday.

Canadian energy merchants will break out of North America and into overseas markets within six years, predicts the nation’s biggest pipeline empire. Exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will begin from new tanker terminals on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia (BC) at Kitimat in late 2017, TransCanada Corp. has told the National Energy Board (NEB).

Canadian energy merchants will break out of North America and into overseas markets within six years, predicts the nation’s biggest pipeline empire. Exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will begin from new tanker terminals on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia (BC) at Kitimat in late 2017, TransCanada Corp. has told the National Energy Board (NEB).

The first four in a series of 10 short films on energy from the director and producer of “Haynesville: A Nation’s Hunt for an Energy Future” (see Shale Daily, Nov. 23, 2010) debuted at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado this week.

State officials and industry stakeholders from the nation’s No. 2 and No. 3 oil producing states, North Dakota and Alaska, are stirring the pot of competition, speculating that Bakken supplies may soon be edging out Alaskan crude from West Coast refineries, particularly Tesoro Corp.’s facility at Anacortes, WA.

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 Dakota continued on a record-setting pace for oil and natural gas production at the end of the first quarter, but state Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms also raised caution in his most recent monthly “Director’s Cut” report released Friday.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who has been at the forefront of the chamber’s efforts to address cyber vulnerabilities involving the nation’s critical infrastructure, sent a letter to the American Gas Association (AGA) Thursday expressing concern about a recent report that said AGA-developed standards to protect data transmitted by control systems were abandoned because of the costs.