Occurred

A new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Services (CRS) has backed up Republican lawmakers’ claims that all of the increase in oil and natural gas production that occurred during the past five years has been on state and private — rather than federal — lands. For the most part, state and private lands are where the shale action is.

A new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Services (CRS) has backed up Republican lawmakers’ claims that all of the increase in oil and natural gas production that occurred during the past five years has been on state and private — rather than federal — lands.

A tanker truck driver was killed after a storage tank at an EQT Corp. natural gas well in West Virginia exploded on Friday morning.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it will begin packing up the section of the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline that was damaged in the Tuesday blast in West Virginia for it to be sent to its headquarters in Washington, DC, for closer scrutiny.

The Natural Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Wednesday began sifting through pieces of the Columbia Gas Transmission system that ruptured near the pipeline’s Lanham Compressor Station sear Sissonville, WV, a rural community of 4,000 about 15 miles north of the state capital, Charleston.

Futures jumped Thursday following the release of government inventory data, but the surge occurred after most cash trading had taken place, leaving the illusion of divergent markets.

Earthquakes such as the one that forced a wastewater disposal well in Youngstown, OH, to be closed at the beginning of the year can be avoided if oil, natural gas and service companies are more knowledgeable of the local and regional geology.

The Ohio company that owns a wastewater disposal well in Youngstown shut down by state regulators for allegedly triggering a series of earthquakes will pay for a study to determine the cause of the seismic activity.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) said last Friday that a slow drop in pressure occurred during a hydrostatic pressure test on a portion of the same 30-inch diameter transmission pipeline (Line 132) involved in last year’s deadly San Bruno rupture near Palo Alto. It turned out to be a small pinhole leak of approximately one millimeter in diameter, a situation that PG&E stressed was safe with no customer impacts. This is the second recent incident in the utility’s ongoing intensive pipeline testing program prompted by San Bruno (see Daily GPI, Oct. 26). PG&E said the water leak was detected during the initial phase of a hydrostatic pressure test at 75% of the test pressure for one hour. The pressure at the time of the leak was 525 psig; Line 132’s maximum allowable operating pressure is 400 psig. Its normal operating pressure is 375 psig and it is currently operating at a reduced pressure of 300 psig, mandated since the San Bruno incident. PG&E said it will identify the exact location of the leak in the next few days, excavate, make repairs and then reconduct the hydrostatic pressure test.