Reform

Canada’s Liberal government has recruited experts in adapting projects and regulations to environmental, community and aboriginal concerns for a panel mandated to chart a course to “modernize” the National Energy Board (NEB).

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) faces a series of reforms after Gov. Jerry Brown’s signing last Thursday of five legislative measures (AB 2168, SB 62, SB 215, SB 512, and SB 661) all aimed at changing the way the semi-independent regulatory body does its business.

Liberalization of Mexico’s energy sector began in 2013, and so far the results have been less than hoped for. The country’s oil production continues to decline, quickly, and real/perceived “above-ground” risk is clouding opportunities for outside investment, analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc. said in a note Monday.

One bill is already awaiting the governor’s signature and two others (SB 512 and AB 2903) are still in play to reform the state’s major energy regulatory commission as California’s legislature sprints toward the end of its session at midnight on Wednesday. SB 512 passed the lower house Assembly on Monday and went back to the Senate for concurrence.

Mexico’s Congress late Wednesday approved long-awaited legislation that opens the country’s energy sector to private investment and is aimed at stimulating oil and gas production in the energy-rich country.

Mexico’s Congress on Thursday gave final approval to reforms that would open the country’s energy industry to foreign investment after 75 years of monopoly control by state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Outside money, talent and expertise are seen as vital to exploiting the country’s vast oil and natural gas reserves and stemming oil production declines.

Independent oil and natural gas producers could see a drop of 25% in their capital expenditures (capex) under Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’ (D-MT) draft tax reform plan, according to a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA).

Mexico’s federal government-dominated energy sector continues to be the focus of reform talk by the country’s presidential administration, with disclosures by the new CEO at Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) that he will form a new company within the state-operated oil and natural gas giant specifically to go after shale and deep water Gulf of Mexico (GOM) supplies outside of Mexico.

Natural gas producers don’t owe a duty to develop each and every “economically exploitable strata” under a landowner’s property, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled last month.