natural gas

Louisiana Senate lawmakers voted out a bill Tuesday that would stop a mega-lawsuit targeting South Louisiana pipeline operators for alleged damages to coastal wetlands that protect New Orleans and the surrounding area from storm surges.

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has ended patrols and operations for the final three shoreline miles in Louisiana, bringing to a close the four-year active cleanup of the Gulf Coast following the Macondo well blowout in April 2010, BP plc officials said. Operations ended in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi in June 2013.

Up to 17 proposed statewide ballot initiatives dealing with the oil and natural gas industry are in line to be sanctioned to begin signature-gathering campaigns, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, which oversees the ballot qualification process.

Fort Worth, TX-based Athlon Energy Inc., which targets the Permian Basin, had record production during the first quarter of 16,987 boe/d, up from 9,959 boe/d during the year-ago quarter, a 71% increase. Meanwhile, recent Wolfcamp Shale wells are turning in better-than-expected results.

(Editor’s Note: This story is being re-posted with corrections. The original article published April 16, 2014 incorrectly stated that the shareholder meeting was for Spectra Energy Partners LP. NGI regrets the error.)

The changing global energy landscape has dealt the United States a new set of cards, offering it a choice of whether to wield its power as a stick, as Russia has attempted, or as a tool to foster a more stable international order, according to a new report by the Brookings Institution.

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) has released the first in a series of comprehensive reports detailing the mixed impact of unconventional shale development on the state’s 2.2 million acres of public forest land.

An Ensco drilling platform preparing to work for Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in the deepwaters of the Gulf of Mexico will be assessed for damage after it was struck about 3:15 a.m. Tuesday by a large storm wave. None of the 116 crew members aboard the platform were injured and there were no evacuations. A U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said crews for Ensco plan to inspect the semi-submersible Ensco 8506 rig, which is about 130 miles from Galveston, TX. The rig was knocked about 55 feet and began to take on water in one of the six flotation columns. The rig, in 3,000 feet of water, was stable. The rig is scheduled to begin operations in mid-July at a dayrate in the “high $540,000s,” Ensco said. The dynamically positioned rig, built in 2012, is designed for water depths of 8,500-10,000 feet with a maximum drilling depth of 35,000 feet.

Staff members of Ohio’s Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) plan to recommend on Friday that the board of directors reduce annual property tax assessments beginning in 2015, on the grounds that the district is bringing in more revenue from oil and gas leases in the Utica Shale.