Position

NuStar Energy LP and Valero Energy Corp. have struck an agreement for NuStar to modify existing sections of its South Texas pipeline system and build new sections to transport Eagle Ford and other crude oils. NuStar will reverse an eight-inch diameter refined products pipeline that currently runs from Corpus Christi to Three Rivers and will convert it to crude service. The pipeline will provide capacity to transport Eagle Ford crude and condensate to Valero’s Corpus Christi refinery; the line is expected to be in full service by the end of September. NuStar will also construct 55 miles of new 12-inch diameter pipeline that will connect to existing pipeline segments to move crude from Corpus Christi to Valero’s Three Rivers refinery. This system is expected to be in service by the second quarter of 2012. “With the growing production from the Eagle Ford region, NuStar is in the unique position to provide Valero and our other customers with quick transportation solutions given the fact that we have hundreds of miles of existing pipeline running from that region into Corpus Christi, where it can be refined or transported to other locations,” said NuStar CEO Curt Anastasio.

Seeking gas gathering capacity for its joint venture exploration and production operations in the Marcellus Shale, Ontario-based Epsilon Energy Ltd. said it has entered an agreement with its partners Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Statoil USA Onshore Properties Inc. to construct a new gathering system.

In a case pitting a Sullivan County, NY, homeowner against his property owners association (POA), a Sullivan Civil Supreme Court judge has permanently barred Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. from drilling in the residential subdivision, which is located in the Marcellus Shale.

Gov. Jerry Brown has tapped an obscure and unfilled appointee position at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to add a special advisor to the mix of five governor-appointed state regulators to push along some his own pet distributed and solar energy initiatives. Jeanne Clinton, a manager in the CPUC’s Climate Strategies Branch, was appointed special advisor for energy efficiency, renewables and distributed generation. Clinton has worked in high-level energy policymaking positions in the state government since 2001. In addition to working with the five commissioners, Clinton will interface with the CPUC energy division and its office of government affairs, as well as other departments and agencies in state government. The appointment does not require state Senate confirmation as do the five CPUC commissioner positions.

Petrohawk Energy Corp. got into the Eagle Ford Shale and moved fast. Those are the keys to success in shale plays, the company’s vice president of exploration, Charles Cusack, told a Houston audience Wednesday.

The mayor of Pittsburgh said he would not sign a measure allowing voters to decide whether to ban natural gas extraction in the city, but the city council is still trying to get the referendum on the ballot.

Voters are nearly evenly split about the New York Department of Conservation’s (DEC) proposed recommendations to allow hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) in a portion of the state’s Marcellus Shale, with 45% in support of drilling and 43% opposed, according to a poll of registered voters released on Thursday by the Siena College Research Institute.

Chief Oil & Gas LLC announced Thursday that separate investigations by the company and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have concluded that Chief is not responsible for contaminating the water well of a woman in Bradford County, PA, who went on to become a vocal critic of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Chief Oil & Gas LLC has paid $180,000 in fines for two violations discovered last year at a well in Somerset County, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said Tuesday.