Published

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI), whose management in May made an ambitious bid to take the company private (see NGI, June 5), reported 2Q2006 income from continuing operations rose 11% from a year ago to $141.7 million ($1.05/share) from $117.3 million ($0.95), before special items. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP), the master limited partnership owned by KMI, also reported strong quarterly growth, up 8% to $242.2 million ($0.50/unit), ahead of $224.8 million ($0.51) reported a year ago.

In response to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has published changes to oil and gas regulations relating to lease acreage limits and lease reinstatements. A new set of regulations expands the types of lease holdings that are exempt from acreage limits and extends the time for companies to file a lease reinstatement from 15 months to 24 months. The reinstatement provision applies to leases terminated after Aug. 8, 2005. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 limits the amount of acreage a federal oil and gas lessee may hold in any one state to 246,080 acres and exempts certain types of acreage holdings from the leasing acreage limit. Section 352 of the Energy Policy Act expands the list of exempted acreage to include producing leases and leases committed to communitization agreements, in which oil and gas operators jointly administer multiple leases for operational and production purposes as if they were one. This section of the new energy law also exempts from acreage limits those leases for which royalty was paid in the preceding calendar year.

Acting on specifications in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Minerals Management Service (MMS) published requests for comments in the Federal Register this week to prepare for proposed rulemakings that would provide royalty relief for gas and oil production using enhanced recovery techniques and for gas production from methane hydrates.

In an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published Friday in the Federal Register, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) said it is beginning to develop a regulatory program to implement “Alternate Energy-Related Uses on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).” Among other things, the new program would provide access to the OCS to balance competing and complementary uses of offshore acreage and take into “account the evolving nature of the energy industry.”

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) on Friday published a final rule in the Federal Register to allow Suspensions of Operations (SOO) in certain circumstances, which it said will encourage oil and natural gas lessees or operators to drill ultra-deep wells — deeper than 25,000 feet true vertical depth below the ocean surface — on the Outer Continental Shelf. The SOO rule, which would temporarily stop the clock on the lease term to prevent the lease from expiring, is scheduled to take effect Jan. 17.

Eighteen months after a reserves accounting scandal rocked Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the London-based major on Thursday published updated internal rules on how it will book oil and natural gas reserves in the future. The 42-page report is designed to meet Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidelines.

Eighteen months after a reserves accounting scandal rocked Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the London-based major on Thursday published updated internal rules on how it will book oil and natural gas reserves in the future. The 42-page report is designed to meet Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidelines.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published a final rule in last Friday’s Federal Register that revises the process the BLM will use in issuing right-of-way grants and calculating cost-recovery fees for the use of public lands for pipelines, roads, transmission lines and communications sites.

In an effort to increase deep gas and oil production, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) published a proposed rule last week in the Federal Register that would give increased drilling time to leaseholders who plan to drill ultra-deep wells (deeper than 25,000 feet).