Possibility

The federal government is eyeing the possibility of regulating the safety of gathering lines that serve the Marcellus Shale play in Pennsylvania, the head of the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administrator (PHMSA) told a Senate panel last Monday.

The federal government is considering the possibility of regulating the safety of gathering lines that serve the Marcellus Shale play in Pennsylvania, the head of the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) told a Senate panel Monday.

The federal government is eyeing the possibility of regulating the safety of gathering lines that serve the Marcellus Shale play in Pennsylvania, the head of the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administrator (PHMSA) told a Senate panel Monday.

Despite producing less wastewater per unit of natural gas produced compared with conventional wells, the enormity of the Marcellus Shale’s growth has increased total wastewater generated in the region by about 570% since 2004, “overwhelming current wastewater disposal infrastructure capacity,” according to a study by researchers at Duke and Kent State universities.

Confronted with the possibility of having to pay the largest penalty ever imposed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for market manipultaion, Barclays Bank PLC Friday attempted to lay out its case that it had neither the intent nor the ability to manipulate prices in the wholesale electric power markets.

Banking on the possibility that New York will lift its moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the near future, Norse Energy Corp. ASA on Thursday completed a $37 million sale of operated production and other assets in the Empire State to EmKey Resources LLC (see Shale Daily, March 19), giving it cash to focus on core properties in the Marcellus and Utica shales in central New York.

As TransCanada Corp. pursues various parts of the spurned Keystone XL oil pipeline project, shippers who hold long-term firm contracts equating to 850,000 b/d are continuing to stick with the C$7 billion, 1,700-mile pipeline project, TransCanada CEO Russ Girling told an institutional investment conference in British Columbia (BC) Thursday.

An American Petroleum Institute (API) official did not rule out the possibility that the group would challenge in court the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rules to reduce air pollution from oil and natural gas drilling operations if its recommended improvements to the rule are ignored.

An American Petroleum Institute (API) official did not rule out the possibility that the group would challenge in court the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rules to reduce air pollution from oil and natural gas drilling operations if its recommended improvements to the rule are ignored.