Refineries

After capturing a healthy and growing share of Canadian natural gas consumption with shale production from the United States, exploration and production companies are poised to repeat the feat in oil markets.

Major environmental groups leading opposition to the northern portion of the proposed $7 billion, 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline project from Alberta to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico region lashed out at the U.S. State Department last Friday for not making public the comments being collected on the project’s draft supplemental environmental impact statement (see Shale Daily, March 4). Effectively, the only way to hear and respond to public comments on the draft study will be at a hearing scheduled for April 18 in Grand Island, NB, said a Friends of the Earth spokesperson, calling the move “unusual.” This is prompting the foes of Keystone XL to claim the State Department is violating public transparency practices followed by other federal agencies regarding draft environmental studies. The stakeholders are in the middle of a 45-day comment period on the proposed northern portion of TransCanada Corp.’s controversial tar sands oil pipeline from Western Canada to Cushing, OK.

Nebraska environmental officials on Friday issued a final evaluation report regarding TransCanada Corp.’s alternative route for the norethern portion of its proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. The rerouting avoids environmentally sensitive areas in the Sand Hills region of the state, and carries 57 special conditions that TransCanada has agreed to fulfill.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is reportedly seeking up to $1.675 billion in tax credits over the next 25 years for Royal Dutch Shell plc and other companies willing to locate an ethane cracker in the state.

The promised re-application of a newly split two-part Keystone XL oil pipeline project to the U.S. State Department is still six to eight weeks away, a Calgary, Alberta-based spokesperson for TransCanada Corp. told NGI’s Shale Daily.

The Texas Supreme Court has for a second time reversed a court of appeals judgement in a case involving a pipeline company’s use of eminent domain for a public use project and has remanded the case to a district court “for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

Newfield Exploration Co. has signed a 10-year supply agreement with HollyFrontier Corp. to provide 20,000 b/d of supply capacity at HollyFrontier’s Woods Cross, UT, refinery.

Both the regulatory and commercial processes are on track for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline linking western Canadian and U.S. Upper Midwest supply sources to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) region, TransCanada CEO Russ Girling told financial analysts Tuesday on a conference call. Under questioning, however, he admitted delays could sour current support the line enjoys from major shippers and refiners on both sides of the international border.

NC12 Inc., formerly Texas Syngas Inc., is readying an effort to construct a synthetic natural gas facility near some Louisiana oil refineries that would convert used coal and petroleum coke wastes into gas.