National

Massachusetts regulators on Monday ordered National Grid plc to halt all nonessential work in the state after excess natural gas was “inadvertently” introduced into pipelines, raising concerns of a repeat of last month’s Merrimack Valley explosions.

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, reportedly plans to introduce legislation to redesignate two national monuments in his state — including one in an area that has seen some oil and gas drilling — and hinted that an additional statute to modify the Antiquities Act of 1906 could be forthcoming.

The Department of Interior (DOI) said it will review 27 national monument designations in order to comply with two executive orders (EO) signed last month by President Trump, and will seek public comments over the designations — a first in the department’s history.

National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG) subsidiaries have have asked a federal court to review the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) decision to deny the Northern Access expansion project a water quality certification and other permits. NFG filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Friday. DEC rejected the project’s permits earlier this month, saying construction would negatively impact the environment. The 490,000 Dth/d Northern Access project would expand the Empire and National Fuel systems to move natural gas from wells in northwest Pennsylvania to markets in New York, Canada, the Northeast and the Midwest.

The Canadian government is being pressed by its own National Energy Board (NEB) to heal political sore spots that have slowed the regulatory process to a crawl through barrages of environmental, community and native protests.

Six projects underway at four national laboratories, which are delving into processes used to extract oil and natural gas from unconventional shale reservoirs, have received more funding by federal officials.

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) said it “is concerned” that two proposed Appalachia-to-Southeast natural gas pipelines would traverse steep slopes subject to erosion, and it has asked its backers to submit additional information as it considers issuing special use permits for the projects.

The price of carbon emissions across Canada should start at a minimum C$10 (US$7.60) per ton in 2018 and climb to C$50 (US$38) as of 2022, the federal government recommended Monday.

National Fuel Gas Co. continued to curtail natural gas production in its fiscal year (FY) 1Q2016, saying during its earnings call on Friday that it would scale back further by dropping a rig in the Marcellus Shale and delay its Northern Access pipeline expansion project until next year.