Regulators

Colorado legislators and Wyoming regulators are looking at different ways to tighten oversight of their states’ oil and natural gas drilling.

Regulators with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) passed a milestone in the Utica Shale last week, after having cumulatively issued more than 600 permits for horizontal wells targeting oil and natural gas.

An ExxonMobil Corp. oil pipeline spill late last month in Mayflower, AR, has left many questions in its wake for regulators and state officials about what the accident may mean for future pipeline projects from, including the controversial Keystone XL project that would carry oilsands crude to Gulf Coast markets.

Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities on Wednesday gained approval Wednesday from Idaho regulators to raise its retail natural gas utility rates 5.2% this year with the bulk of the hike effective Monday. Retail electric rates for the combination utility will stay unchanged until Oct. 1 when a 1.9% power utility retail rate increase will start, according to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The rate changes are part of a settlement the PUC approved, dividing the gas hike into two parts: 4.9% effective Monday and 0.3% held until Oct. 1. Avista originally had proposed a 7.2% gas rate increase overall, and a 4.6% electric rate hike for Monday. The settlement precludes a separate base rate settlement from becoming effective until Jan. 1, 2015, the PUC said.

North Dakota regulators reported a decline in month-over-month production for both oil and gas in January, and weather conditions attributed to the drop may keep production down well into May, according to Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

California regulators last week took action that longer term could lower natural gas demand in a state with a 5 Bcf/d appetite by approving a less gas-dependent long-term plan for Southern California Edison Co.’s (SCE) future sources of electricity and launching a rulemaking to examine how to integrate biomethane into the state’s extensive gas pipeline grid.

California regulators on Wednesday approved a long-term plan for Southern California Edison Co.’s (SCE) future sources of electricity, which deemphasizes the use of natural gas.

Federal regulators have ordered some offshore operators to suspend Gulf of Mexico (GOM) drilling operations after discovering some apparently faulty bolts were used on equipment to prevent well blowouts.

California’s major utility watchdog group, The Utility Reform Network (TURN), asked state regulators Wednesday to reverse their approval in December allowing $214 million of utility ratepayer support for part of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) multi-year natural gas pipeline safety enhancement plan.