Interior Secretary Gale Norton had good and bad news for the natural gas industry Tuesday. She said the department plans to take steps to speed up the permitting process for natural gas producers in the Rocky Mountain region, but she doused any flickering hope that producers might be given access to the off-limit regions of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) amid the concerns about gas supply and prices.
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Articles from Permit
Raymond James: Rig Count Up 15% in Three Months, Permit Activity High
The North American drilling rig count is off to one of its best starts in a while, up 15% since the beginning of this year, and is running counter to the year-end production spending surveys that indicated minimal spending this year, according to Raymond James Energy’s latest “Stat of the Week.”
Raymond James: Rig Count Up 15% in Three Months, Permit Activity High
The North American drilling rig count is off to one of its best starts in a while, up 15% since the beginning of this year, and is running counter to the year-end production spending surveys that indicated minimal spending this year, according to Raymond James Energy’s latest “Stat of the Week.”
Gas Well Permit Approval on Padre Island Protested by Sierra Club
Over protests by several environmental groups, BNP Petroleum Corp. has received permission to drill two new natural gas wells in the ecologically sensitive Padre Island National Seashore of Texas.
Industry Briefs
Midcoast Energy Resources said Midcoast del Bajio has beenawarded a permit by the Mexican Energy Regulatory Commission tobuild a 59-mile, 16-inch diameter gas pipeline in the Bajio regionin the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico. The line will runfrom an interconnection with a Pemex near Valtierrilla to Leon andwill provide gas transportation services to parts of central Mexicothat currently do not have access to gas. Midcoast del Bajio willhold an open season from July 16 to July 26 for firm transportationcapacity on the proposed pipeline. And a series of informationalmeetings will be held jointly with Pemex to answer questions frompotential transportation customers and other interested parties.The meetings will be held on June 24 in Irapuato, Guanajuato at theHotel Parador del Rio and on June 25 in Leon, Guanajuato at theFiesta Americana Hotel.
Dumping SFV May be Panacea for Industry
Abandoning straight-fixed variable rate design (SFV) in favor ofone that would permit recovery of some pipeline fixed costs in theusage rate would resolve a lot of the competitive concerns raisedby FERC in its mega-notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) and noticeof inquiry (NOI), New York regulators and a coalition of utilitiessaid in separate, yet complementary filings last week.
Sempra’s Billion Dollar Mexican Supply Project Advances
Mexico’s Comision Reguladora de Energa (CRE) granted a permitto Transportadora de Gas Natural de Baja California, a subsidiarycompany of U.S.-based Sempra Energy International, for transportinggas to the Presidente Juarez thermoelectric station in Rosarito,Baja California. The pipeline is part of a ten-year gas supplycontract valued at close to a billion dollars. Enova and PacificEnterprises (now combined to form Sempra) won the bid for gas tosupply the generating station. The projected 30-inch diameterpipeline will span 23 miles and is designed to operate with acompression capacity of 810 MMcf/d and operative capacity of 270MMcf/d.