Pacific

USGS said the “California Seafloor Mapping Program” has peeled back “a veil of water just offshore of California,” revealing the ocean’s floor in significantly new detail. “New imagery, specialized undersea maps, and a wealth of data from along the California coast are now available,” a USGS spokesperson said.

Industry executives who recently offered Oregon regulators an updated natural gas outlook for the Pacific Northwest said they see faint signs of potential added gas-fired industrial loads taking shape, but flat near-term demand projections nevertheless dominated their forecasts.

Competition from U.S. exporters in Ontario and Quebec has a silver lining for sponsors of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia (BC).

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) late last Friday filed its second annual report to state regulators summarizing its progress on current and future work aimed at improving its natural gas system’s safety as mandated by a state law (SB 705) passed in 2011 in response to the 2010 San Bruno transmission pipeline failure. Under its pipeline safety enhancement plan, PG&E told the California Public Utilities Commission that it has strength-tested 456 miles of its 6,750-mile gas transmission pipeline system. The utility said its has installed 76 automated shutoff valves on critical parts of the system while validating the safe operating pressure for the entire system. In addition, the utility said it is pursuing an internationally recognized gas safety certification for its system called “Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 55”; it also has established an employee-led company wide, grassroots safety committee to promote safe work habits, best practices and open communications; and it has a new Corrective Action Program to collect and act on gas system issues and ideas though a central internal company processing center. In addition, PG&E said its ongoing gas safety plan overall has been reviewed by several outside parties and includes input from employees at all levels of the PG&E gas operations organization.

Enbridge Inc.’s hotly contested Northern Gateway pipeline proposal for an oilsands conduit from Edmonton to a new tanker terminal on the northern Pacific Coast at Kitimat, BC, hit another hurdle this past week when the Yinka Dene Alliance sent a cease and desist letter, warning Enbridge against trespassing in their traditional territories as the company seeks temporary permits for drilling and tree removal for the pipeline project.

In the midst of calls to “throw the book” at Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) after the San Bruno natural gas transmission pipeline explosion (see Daily GPI, June 7), a California regulator on Thursday found reason to praise the often-criticized San Francisco-based combination utility.

Enbridge Inc.’s hotly contested Northern Gateway pipeline proposal for an oilsands conduit from Edmonton to a new tanker terminal on the northern Pacific Coast at Kitimat, BC, hit another hurdle this week when the Yinka Dene Alliance sent a cease and desist letter, warning Enbridge against trespassing in their traditional territories as the company seeks temporary permits for drilling and tree removal for the pipeline project.

Any U.S. oil and gas wildcatter looking for a way to get on the Forbes annual Billionaires list might take a hint from some of the interests among those who made this year’s list, published Monday. They like oil and they like natural gas, and many of them especially like shale.

Talisman Energy Inc. is shopping its Eagle Ford Shale acreage with hopes of raising up to US$2 billion, according to a Reuters report that cited unnamed sources.