News

The Republican-led House Thursday passed legislation that would enact the terms of a U.S.-Mexico transboundary agreement governing the development of shared oil and gas resources along the two countries’ maritime boundary in the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama earlier this week said he opposed the bill, but he stopped short of saying he would veto it.

In another major victory for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, Thursday upheld a lower court’s decision that found the agency did not act illegally in promulgating the Dodd-Frank regulations.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Thursday filed its case against MF Global Inc., MF Global Holdings Ltd. and CEO Jon Corzine and an assistant treasurer for illegal use of customer money, calling for 100% restitution of customer losses totaling approximately $1 billion, plus a $100 million penalty, in the firm’s October 2011 bankruptcy

The Senate Thursday unanimously confirmed Anthony Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, NC, to succeed Ray LaHood as secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOT), which oversees the safety of the nation’s natural gas and hazardous pipeline infrastructure, as well as roads, airports and railways.

Physical natural gas prices Wednesday for Thursday delivery fell an average of 8 cents nationally as double-digit, power-driven declines in the East and Northeast prompted declines in next-day gas that at some points exceeded $1.00. On the West Coast, however, prices made small advances as the independent system operator predicted high next-day power loads. At the close of trading the expiring July contract had added 6.0 cents to $3.707 and August rose 6.7 cents to $3.737. August crude oil gained 18 cents to $95.50/bbl.

President Obama’s climate action plan may increase reliance on natural gas as a baseload source of electricity generation, but it is also sparking plans for coal export projects in the West to market U.S. supplies to Asia-Pacific markets.

Cyber attacks on the oil and gas industry ranging from espionage by foreign intelligence services to attempts to interrupt a company’s physical operations are posing “an increasingly challenging problem for U.S. national security and economic competitiveness,” according to a new study by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

By 2016, the world will get more of its electricity from renewables — hydro, wind, solar, etc. — than from natural gas, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) “Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report.” But in the Americas, particularly the United States, natural gas is still in the lead.

The number of natural gas vehicles (NGV) worldwide will nearly double between now and 2020, according to a report released Tuesday by Navigant Research. NGVs on the roadway will increase steadily from 18.2 million now to 34.9 million by 2020, Navigant said.