Process

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended the deadline from April 30 until Nov. 15 for the public to submit data and scientific literature as part of the agency’s study of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on drinking water sources.

The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not give sufficient attention to the potential environmental impact from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) when it issued oil/gas leases for 2,500 acres two years ago, a judge in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, in San Jose ruled on Monday.

Canadian midstream operator Keyera Corp. has agreed to transport and process the Wapiti Montney condensate-rich natural gas production of NuVista Energy Ltd.

FERC has approved CenterPoint Energy Gas Transmission LLC’s (CEGT) request to participate in the agency’s pre-filing process for a proposed pipeline system expansion in central Arkansas.

As part of its proposed joint venture diesel refinery slated to process 20,000 b/d of Bakken crude oil by next year, Bismarck, ND-based MDU Resources Group has a strategy aimed at its exploration and production (E&P) and midstream infrastructure businesses sharing in the continuing boom in its home state.

A new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Services (CRS) has backed up Republican lawmakers’ claims that all of the increase in oil and natural gas production that occurred during the past five years has been on state and private — rather than federal — lands. For the most part, state and private lands are where the shale action is.

Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s (Oxy) board has launched a search for a new CEO as part of the company’s management succession planning process. The board has formed a search committee to review both internal and external candidates to replace current President and CEO Stephen Chazen, 65. No timetable has been set for the completion of the search. As previously announced, Oxy Executive Chairman Ray Irani, who is in his late 70s, will retire at the end of 2014.

Marathon Oil Corp. CEO Charles Cazalot will be required to step down in three years when he turns age 65, but the company has a succession planning process in place, Cazalot said during an earnings conference call. Last December COO David Roberts left the company with less than a week’s notice “to pursue other interests.” Cazalot said Marathon has a “very strong team and the company is in very good hands, and succession planning for the leadership team is a critical priority.” Roberts had been viewed by some as a successor to Cazalot.

While other stakeholders have been critical of California’s preliminary draft hydraulic fracturing (fracking) rules, two energy attorneys with the firm of K&L Gates consider the rules’ proposed protections for trade secrets to be adequate for shielding exploration and production (E&P) operators’ proprietary information tied to fracking.