Presidential

Congressional lawmakers were far from united in their reaction to the findings and recommendations in the final report of the presidential commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon rig disaster, which was released Tuesday.

Pennsylvania election results “were a good thing” for natural gas companies operating in the state, Atlas Resources President Richard Weber told a Marcellus Shale conference in Pittsburgh Wednesday.

A presidential commission to explore the cause of the recent blowout and on-going oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), safety and environmental regulations that govern offshore production, and the relationship between the Minerals Management Service (MMS) and producers will be created by President Obama, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a Senate energy committee last week.

FERC Tuesday issued an order amending Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLC’s presidential permit so that it can export, as well as import, natural gas through its cross-border pipeline facilities at the U.S.-Canadian border.

FERC last Thursday approved affiliates Oasis Pipeline LP’s (Oasis) and Oasis Pipe Line Co. Texas LP’s (Oasis Texas) request for Section 3 Natural Gas Act authorization and a presidential permit to build and operate pipeline facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border to export gas for use by gas-fired electric generation plants and industrial customers in northern Mexico. The border-crossing facilities were proposed as part of a much larger expansion of the Oasis system.

FERC Thursday approved affiliates Oasis Pipeline LP’s (Oasis) and Oasis Pipe Line Co. Texas LP’s (Oasis Texas) request for Section 3 Natural Gas Act authorization and a presidential permit to build and operate pipeline facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border to export gas for use by gas-fired electric generation plants and industrial customers in northern Mexico. The border-crossing facilities were proposed as part of a much larger expansion of the Oasis system.

Presidential appointment and Congressional confirmation of the director of the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) “would provide additional oversight and scrutiny of the agency, as well as elevate the status of one of the largest non-tax revenue operations within the federal government,” a taxpayer watchdog group is slated to tell a Congressional subcommittee last week.

Presidential appointment and Congressional confirmation of the director of the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) “would provide additional oversight and scrutiny of the agency, as well as elevate the status of one of the largest non-tax revenue operations within the federal government,” a taxpayer watchdog group is slated to tell a Congressional subcommittee Tuesday.

The energy industry’s race to keep up with the global demand for natural gas is “as tight a race as the U.S. presidential campaign,” but it’s not a “zero-sum game with only one winner. This is a race all of us must win,” a Royal Dutch Shell plc executive said last week.