Permit

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has told key state legislators that no additional requirements are needed to protect the air quality from horizontal oil and gas drilling.

FERC Thursday approved Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline LLC’s (KMTP) application to amend its presidential permit to increase the design capacity of its U.S.-Mexico border-crossing facilities from 425 MMcf/d to 700 MMcf/d (see Daily GPI, March 8).

Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) Tuesday penalized Oxy USA Inc. nearly $1 million for the “knowing or willful failure” to permit a state audit of the company’s oil and natural gas leases on federal lands in New Mexico.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a permit to Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC (TGP) for its Northeast Upgrade Project after determining that it is in the public interest and would not adversely affect the environment. An environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project is not necessary, in part because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its approval in May 2012 (see NGI, June 4, 2012). The Northeast Upgrade Project calls for expanding TGP’s existing 24-inch diameter 300 Line by building five, 30-inch diameter pipeline loops and modifying four existing compressor stations. The $400 million project would allow an additional 636,000 Dth/d of natural gas to be transported via the 300 Line to markets in the Northeast. An interconnection with the Algonquin Gas Transmission line also is to be built in Mahwah, NJ.

Although the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has missed deadlines for two of the three studies it was required to perform under the state’s Marcellus Shale regulatory reform law, the agency is close to completing one of the studies and should present it to legislators soon.

Dow Chemical Co. has taken the next step forward to build a planned world-class ethylene facility in Freeport, TX, and is seeking a federal air emissions permit for the proposed plant.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has deferred a decision on Sierra Club’s request to block a major permit for Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass project to liquefy and export domestic gas from Louisiana.

Two legislators in Ohio, well-known foes of shale development, have introduced a pair of bills designed to reverse a gag order that they say prevents medical personnel from doing their jobs as it relates to providing chemical information about hydraulic fracture (frack) fluids.

A professor at Ohio’s Cleveland State University (CSU) said permitting activity in the Utica Shale this year is in line with projections but further success in the play depends on obtaining accurate decline curve data for production over a longer period of time.