Plans

Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Sally Jewell said oil and gas companies should be minimally impacted by plans to conserve the habitat of the greater sage grouse, as Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead added that the plans were essentially the last chance to avoid having the bird added to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in September.

ExxonMobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy Inc. plans to double the capacity at its natural gas processing facility in western Pennsylvania and has filed for permits with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

ExxonMobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy Inc. plans to double the capacity at its natural gas processing facility in western Pennsylvania and has filed for permits with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

With the public notice last year of at least the possibility of one oilfield service firm contemplating laying off workers, sharply lower global oil prices at the start of the new year are sending some economic aftershocks of uncertainty through California’s oil and natural gas sector, not unlike other parts of the nation.

Chevron Corp. is putting on indefinite hold plans to drill in Canada’s Beaufort Sea because of “economic uncertainty” in the industry.

An MDU Resources Group diesel refinery in North Dakota is on schedule to begin operations before the end of this year, and a separate fertilizer plant that its midstream unit will supply with natural gas feedstock now looks like its development will move forward, MDU executives told an analysts conference in Las Vegas, NV, Wednesday.

Plans by Puget Sound Energy (PSE) to develop a $275 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and transportation facility at the Port of Tacoma south of Seattle moved ahead with the recent approval of a lease by the port’s governing board. Construction is slated to begin next year and be completed by the end of 2018.

With mandated gas capture plans and better long-range communications with midstream processing/gathering system operators, North Dakota’s full-court press to greatly cut the percentage of associated gas flared at the wellhead is taking on a new life.

Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. plans to submit an application to drill and perform hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at up to four test wells in northwest England’s Lancashire County, in the Borough of Fylde, and hopes to have a decision within 16 weeks of its application being accepted, the company said Monday.