natural gas

Chesapeake Energy Corp. no longer wants to fight the state of New York’s moratorium on unconventional drilling and is allowing leases it holds in the Southern Tier to expire.

Technological innovations in the oil and gas industry have led to some remarkable discoveries over its 150-year history, but even with the plethora of inventions that have boosted U.S. reserves, there’s still plenty to learn, energy stalwarts said last week at the Colorado Oil & Gas Association’s 25th Annual Rocky Mountain Energy Summit.

With continued confidence that their proposed Gulf Coast-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project will begin construction next year, Sempra Energy senior executives last week said they are looking for other market growth opportunities from the shale-driven U.S. gas supply boom.

It will be up to risk-taking entrepreneurs –and not Congress– who will lead the way for the oil and natural gas industry, a former U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) official said Wednesday in Denver.

Private equity (PE) continues to put a bead on funding U.S. exploration and production (E&P) companies, and there appears to be a lot more money available than ever before, unconventional operators said at the Colorado Oil & Gas Association’s Rocky Mountain Energy Summit in Denver.

Natural gas and oil companies concerned that fringe protesters will succeed in delaying or canceling projects shouldn’t be, said the chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy. New technology eventually will be embraced, he said, but it will take time.

FERC last Monday ordered BP America Inc. and affiliates to show cause in a long-running case [IN13-15] involving the alleged gaming of the physical and financial markets at the Houston Ship Channel (HSC). The Commission proposed a near-$29 million penalty for transactions taking place from mid-September 2008 through Nov. 30, 2008.

State regulators and alternative fuel advocates are increasingly finding that the roads are getting crowded with natural gas vehicle (NGV) proposals as the transportation sector tries to make more use of abundant U.S. supplies. Oregon, Texas and Utah are the latest to extend their push to expand the market for NGVs.

A veteran researcher at the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) is urging state regulators and utility managers to pay more attention to “lost” natural gas, both from a safety standpoint and because of costs.