Overseeing

The fiscal 2011 budget deal approved by Congress last Thursday and forwarded to the White House has some good and bad news for agencies overseeing the energy industry.

The fiscal 2011 budget deal approved by Congress Thursday and forwarded to the White House has some good and bad news for agencies overseeing the energy industry.

The heads of the Senate and House committees overseeing the implementation of the sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act last Thursday urged federal regulators to provide an exemption from margin requirements for end-user transactions in the derivatives markets.

The heads of the Senate and House committees overseeing the implementation of the sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act Thursday urged federal regulators to provide an exemption from margin requirements for end-user transactions in the derivatives markets.

The Interior Department agency overseeing the safety of offshore rigs Monday approved the first deepwater drilling perrmit since the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig and resulting oil spill last April. The permit allows Noble Energy to move forward with a bypass well in the Santiago prospect in Mississippi Canyon Block 519, about 70 miles southeast of Venice, LA. The Houston-based producer is the operator with a 23.25% working interest.

In letters to developers of proposed well control and containment systems, the federal agency overseeing offshore safety has made it clear that it will not approve new permits for drilling in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico unless operators have access to systems that can “quickly and effectively contain” future underwater well blowouts.

In letters to developers of proposed well control and containment systems last week, the federal agency overseeing offshore safety made it clear that it will not approve new permits for drilling in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico unless operators have access to systems that can “quickly and effectively contain” future underwater well blowouts.

Joseph Martens, who was tapped by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday to lead New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), last year suggested the state wait until a federal study had been completed on hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) impacts to health and the environment before implementing rules for Marcellus Shale drillers.

In keeping with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s pledge to separate the functions of the agency overseeing activity in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the department said Friday it has established the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget.