Oversight

California regulators are facing increased scrutiny on their response to stepping up natural gas pipeline safety oversight following a 2010 explosion in San Bruno on a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) line.

The leading California state lawmakers bird-dogging proposals to stiffen the state’s oversight of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) brought a new issue to the table — acidization to unlock Monterey Shale oil deposits — during a state Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee hearing last month in Sacramento .

Colorado legislators and Wyoming regulators are looking at different ways to tighten oversight of their states’ oil and natural gas drilling.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight (DMO) Friday issued no-action relief for end-users from certain reporting and record keeping requirements under the Dodd-Frank law. The requirements were to go into effect on Wednesday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight (DMO) Friday issued no-action relief for end-users from certain reporting and recordkeeping requirements under the Dodd-Frank law. The requirements were to go into effect on Wednesday.

Elected officials in Ft. Collins, CO, the university town about 57 miles north of Denver, have passed a ban on oil and natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) within the city limits. The measure still must pass on a second reading in early March.

In the wake of a string of major natural gas pipeline mishaps and stepped up regulatory oversight, a 30-year gas industry veteran said there is a critical need throughout the industry to produce a new generation of well-trained welders and other skilled personnel.

In an effort to determine which government agency has oversight authority for the Bushton, KS, natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation plant, three subsidiaries of Oneok Partners LP have filed a declaratory judgment action in federal District Court in Tulsa, OK, seeking a ruling on the jurisdictional limits of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

A New York judge on Tuesday invalidated the City of Binghamton’s two-year ban by on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and exploration activities that was enacted late last year.