Regulations

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has finalized a supplemental environmental review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a key step in resolving a permitting setback that has prevented construction on a small portion of the project routed through the Jefferson National Forest. Late last week, the USFS released a final supplemental environmental impact statement for…

Argentina President Alberto Fernández unveiled the country’s long-awaited natural gas scheme on Thursday from the heart of the Vaca Muerta shale formation in Neuquén province. “We’re convinced that we are investing in Argentina for the country’s development,” Fernández said. The president spoke from the oil and gas fields at Loma Campana, considered one of the…

California’s oil and natural gas industry is pushing back against a report alleging that the state’s largest exploration operator, now mired in bankruptcy, could leave a billion-dollar abandoned well cleanup problem in its wake. The Sierra Club in a recent report labeled top producer California Resources Corp. (CRC), now in Chapter 11, as a stripper…

The Trump administration on Thursday validated reports of its intention to roll back Obama-era controls on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. In a two-part rulemaking, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rescinded the regulations enacted under the 2016 Oil and Natural Gas New Source Performance Standards (NSPS). The NSPS sought to reduce emissions…

Editor’s Note: NGI’s Mexico Gas Price Index, a leader tracking Mexico natural gas market reform, is offering the following question-and-answer (Q&A) column as part of a regular interview series with experts in the Mexican natural gas market. This 36th Q&A in the series is with Daniel Salomón Sotomayor, an associate with the Mexico City-based legal…

Canadian natives gained a say in national supervision of pipelines and power transmission Wednesday, when the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) appointed its first formal Indigenous Advisory Committee (IAC). The IAC includes nine First Nations, Inuit and Metis representatives from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Yukon Territory. Tribal associations chose three of the…

President Trump intends to nominate Mark Christie, the current chairman of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, and Allison Clements, the founder and president of energy policy and strategy consulting firm Goodgrid LLC, to become FERC commissioners, the White House said Monday. Christie previously was president of the Organization of PJM States Inc. and served on…

A two-year corporate bankruptcy case has resulted in a 110% jump in discarded orphan natural gas wells and production facilities awaiting cleanups, according to the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission (BCOGC). A court-supervised distress auction in the province only sold 414 sites or one-half the BC assets of defunct Ranch Energy Corp. to Erikson…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a proposed order that it said would codify best practices for benefit-cost analysis in rulemakings and provide clarity for states, local communities and industry.