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FERC Thursday approved Northern Natural Gas pipeline’s proposal to construct and operate facilities to offload liquefied natural gas (LNG) at its peak-shaving facility in Hancock County, IA, to respond more quickly in the event of outage emergencies, heightened demand and required maintenance, as well as to provide LNG liquefaction and delivery service to third parties on an interruptible basis.

SandRidge Energy Inc. founder Tom Ward, the former chairman and CEO, was replaced Wednesday by the board of directors, which said its decision was “in the best interests of the company and its shareholders at this time.”

A county judge in Pennsylvania has ordered court records from a water contamination case involving several companies that operate in the Marcellus Shale unsealed and available for public view.

Coal-fired plants that have not already begun to invest in back-end emission controls won’t be able to operate economically for too long into the future, but for plants already equipped with state-of-the-art controls the upcoming federal regulations to reduce carbon emissions will have a gradual impact taking up to a decade, according to NRG Energy Inc. CEO David Crane.

The top executives that own and operate the idle San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (Songs) in Southern California indicated in separate conference calls on Tuesday that the plant’s fate remains uncertain, along with the 2,200 MW associated with it, which puts uncertainty into the state’s summer energy plans.

KW Express LLC a partnership of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) and Watco Companies LLC, has entered into a long-term agreement with Mercuria Energy Trading Co. Inc. to construct a 210,000 b/d crude-by-rail project at the Greens Port Industrial Park on the Houston Ship Channel. The project will allow Mercuria Energy Trading Inc. to source crude from various locations, including Cushing, OK, West Texas, the Bakken Shale area and Western Canada for delivery by rail into the Houston Ship Channel for distribution to various refiners via pipeline and barges. The facility will have the capability to unload and load up to three unit trains per day of crude oil and condensate as well as provide for up to 100,000 b/d of barge loading capacity. KW Express will own 85% of the project and, together with Watco, operate the project once completed. Mercuria will own the remaining 15% interes

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has vacated authorizations for Calhoun LNG and Point Comfort Pipeline to site, construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and associated facilities at the port of Port Lavaca-Point Comfort in Calhoun County, TX. The Commission approved the project in September 2007 (see NGI, Sept. 24, 2007). The companies, which had planned to build a 1 Bcf/d LNG terminal and a 27.1-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline from the terminal to pipeline interconnects southwest of Edna, TX, filed a request to vacate the authorizations in December. Calhoun LNG is a subsidiary of Houston-based Gulf Coast LNG Partners LP.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has vacated authorizations for Calhoun LNG and Point Comfort Pipeline to site, construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and associated facilities at the port of Port Lavaca-Point Comfort in Calhoun County, TX. The Commission approved the project in September 2007 (see Daily GPI, Sept. 21, 2007). The companies, which had planned to build a 1 Bcf/d LNG terminal and a 27.1-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline from the terminal to pipeline interconnects southwest of Edna, TX, filed a request to vacate the authorizations in December. Calhoun LNG is a subsidiary of Houston-based Gulf Coast LNG Partners LP.

Halliburton, Apache Corp. and Caterpillar have developed a dual-fuel technology for using natural gas and diesel to operate pumping equipment used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at oil and gas well sites.