Others

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and others are politicizing the almost 18-month shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in Southern California, Edison International CEO Ted Craver said Wednesday. The “favorable economics” for restarting the 2,200 MW plant are diminishing with the passage of time and no action by federal regulators, he told financial analysts in New York City.

Two workers were killed and three others hospitalized Friday morning in an oil well blowout in the Bone Spring tight sands formation in West Texas, near Barstow.

Royal Dutch Shell plc and others in related industries are continuing their push for using natural gas as a transportation fuel. Several states also are adding incentives.

In some cases operators just aren’t drilling and in others they are leaving the state for greener pastures as 2012 continued to be another year for declining natural gas production in Northwest New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, according to the latest state statistics that showed the region produced 780 Bcf last year.

In some cases operators just aren’t drilling and in others they are leaving the state for greener pastures as 2012 continued to be another year for declining natural gas production in Northwest New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, according to the latest state statistics that showed the region produced 780 Bcf last year.

An investigation has been launched after an accident at an Encana Corp. natural gas drilling site in Colorado killed one person and injured three others. According to law enforcement officials, a high-pressure gas release occurred when four contractors with BGH Gas Test Operating Inc. of Castle Rock, CO, were ramping up production at the well, which is in the Niobrara formation. No explosion or fire occurred at the drilling site, which is near the town of Platteville, about 30 miles north of Denver. Encana has launched an internal investigation; state officials also are conducting an investigation.

Two and a half million gallons sounds like a lot of water, and producers can use that much and more to stimulate a well with hydraulic fracturing (fracking), but other uses consume a lot more, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson told an audience on the Council on Foreign Relations Wednesday.

Enterprise Products Partners LP plans to build one of the world’s largest propane dehydrogenation (PDH) units on the Texas Gulf Coast to take advantage of abundant supplies of propane thrown off by shale gas plays and to address periodic shortages of propylene in the region.

A panel of seven Commonwealth Court judges heard oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by seven Pennsylvania municipalities and others that claim parts of Act 13, the state’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, are unconstitutional.