Railroad

Bills to change the name of and make reforms to the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) were moving through the state legislature Friday, as was legislation to expand the use of pipelines to carry drilling waste rather than trucking it to injection wells.

With about a month to go in the regular legislative session, Texas lawmakers are again inching their way toward changing up the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), including its name, or maybe not.

With potential ramification for long-haul trucking, railroad, marine and oilfield applications, small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling technology, dubbed “LNG In a Box” was unveiled Wednesday by General Electric (GE) unit GE Oil & Gas. The initial models are to be deployed in Europe under a deal with Luxembourg-based Gasfin.

New rules to encourage the state’s oil and natural gas operators to conserve water used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) processes were adopted Tuesday by the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC).

Overall oil production in Texas declined somewhat in January from December, according to preliminary January production figures from the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC). But the Eagle Ford Shale kept on pumping, with leading Eagle Ford counties charting substantial oil production increases from year-ago levels.

The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) on Tuesday approved RRC staff-recommended revisions to proposed changes to commission rules governing casing, cementing, drilling and completion of wells; cathodic protection wells; and seismic holes and core holes. Changes were initially proposed in September in response to action by the Texas Legislature. The revised proposal for changes takes into account responses received by commission staff during a public comment period. The current 45-day public comment period will end at noon April 1. A public hearing is scheduled for 1:30 CST Feb. 21 at the RRC’s Austin office.

Infrastructure projects, acquisitions and contracting activity — particularly in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas — served to lift crude oil pipeline throughputs for NuStar GP Holdings LLC last year. Some of NuStar’s South Texas pipeline assets had been underutilized.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) appointed Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) Chairman Barry Smitherman chair of the NARUC committee on gas. Smitherman, who had served as a co-vice chair of the committee, replaces outgoing chair Timothy Alan Simon of California. Commissioner Todd Snitchler of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio was appointed gas committee co-vice chair along with Commissioner Paul Roberti of the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission. Roberti also leads the NARUC task force on pipeline safety.

Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) Commissioner David Porter, founder of the state’s Eagle Ford Task Force, wants more excess natural gas to be used for power generation at drilling sites instead of being flared.