Preceding

Cyber attacks on the oil and gas industry ranging from espionage by foreign intelligence services to attempts to interrupt a company’s physical operations are posing “an increasingly challenging problem for U.S. national security and economic competitiveness,” according to a new study by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Environmental surcharges will be permanently tacked onto Canadian pipeline tolls if the National Energy Board (NEB) grants requests by natural gas and oil transporters to make shippers cover cleanup liabilities.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that found the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) did not act illegally in promulgating Dodd-Frank regulations. The Investment Company Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce brought the action against the CFTC, arguing that the adopted regulations applying to derivatives trading were unlawfully adopted and invalid. The district court “granted summary judgment in favor of the Commission. Because we agree with the district court that the Commission did not act unlawfully in promulgating the regulations, we affirm,” ruled the appeals court. Specifically, the two groups challenged a rule that would subject registered investment companies (RIC) engaged in derivatives trading to many of the Dodd-Frank requirements. Prior to 2003, RICs engaged in rare derivatives trading activities, but that has since changed, according to the CFTC. It is the agency’s latest legal victory with respect to its Dodd-Frank regulation of the $300 trillion.

Given current commodity prices, natural gas wells drilled in the Marcellus Shale — wet or dry — compete favorably with marginal Bakken Shale oil wells, but that’s the only gas play in the U.S. onshore that today can compete with Bakken oil well economics, according to an analysis by Barclays Capital.

The revival of the U.S. industrial sector will be “the most significant driver” to higher long-term natural gas prices, lifted by new ethylene crackers, ammonia plants and natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities fed by stores of natural gas, according to an analysis by Raymond James & Associates Inc.

The Bowland-Hodder Shale of northern England has between 822 and 2,281 Tcf of natural gas in place, according to a new study that is the first to integrate all existing seismic data, geological analyses and well samples from the shale, the British Geological Survey (BGS) said Thursday. The assessment is higher than earlier estimates.

The number of natural gas vehicles (NGV) worldwide will nearly double between now and 2020, according to a report released last week by Navigant Research. NGVs on the roadway will increase steadily from 18.2 million now to 34.9 million by 2020, Navigant said.

The Republican-led House on Thursday passed legislation that would enact the terms of a U.S.-Mexico transboundary agreement governing the development of shared oil and gas resources along the two countries’ maritime boundary in the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama last week said he opposed the bill, but he stopped short of saying he would veto it.

Environmental surcharges will be permanently tacked onto Canadian pipeline tolls if the National Energy Board (NEB) grants requests by natural gas and oil transporters to make shippers cover cleanup liabilities.