Opening

A Maryland circuit court judge listened to lawyers for Dominion Resources Inc. and two environmental groups on Monday, the opening salvo in lawsuit over a proposed natural gas liquefaction facility, but ultimately decided to take the case under advisement.

A Maryland circuit court judge listened to lawyers for Dominion Resources Inc. and two environmental groups on Monday, the opening salvo in lawsuit over a proposed natural gas liquefaction facility, but ultimately decided to take the case under advisement.

With the official opening of the Atlantic hurricane season less than two weeks away — and the remains of Tropical Cyclone Alberto, the first named storm of the year, dissipating several hundred miles off the Mid-Atlantic coast — forecasters at Weather Services International (WSI) said Tuesday that they continue to expect a relatively quiet hurricane season this year.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) is opening about one-sixth of a game reserve in Bradford County, in the heart of the Marcellus Shale, to oil and natural gas leasing.

North America’s largest recycling/waste management natural gas-powered fleet cleaned up it act just a little more Friday with the opening of a new compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station in the Houston area at Conroe, TX. Waste Management said it now has five CNG-fueled collection vehicles in the Houston area, and will have an additional 35 CNG-powered vehicles by the end of this year. A public station, the Conroe fueling facility, will service Waste Management’s local fleet and sell CNG to commercial fleet operators. Waste Management operates more than 1,400 CNG vehicles, the largest fleet in North America, and a spokesperson said that for every Class 8 diesel truck the company replaces with CNG, diesel use is replaced by an average of 8,000 gallons annually, which cuts annual greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 22 metric tons. The self-service “Clean N’ Green station was built by California-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp.

The West Virginia legislature overwhelmingly approved a landmark Marcellus Shale regulatory reform bill on Wednesday, opening a new chapter for natural gas development in the state.

The West Virginia legislature overwhelmingly approved a landmark Marcellus Shale regulatory reform bill on Wednesday, opening a new chapter for natural gas development in the state.

Contrary to previous reports, the opening of a 1 Bcf/d liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal developed by a Korean-Japanese consortium has been delayed until early 2012, according to business news reports Friday south of the U.S. border. A variety of “setbacks” are being dealt with, an ICIS Heren report indicated.

Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. has agreed to purchase approximately 50,000 net leasehold acres in the Bakken Shale play from an undisclosed private oil and gas company for $540 million in cash and $50 million in stock, and agreed to assume the terms of a drilling rig contract.