reliability

“The times they are a changin’.” NGI’s National Spot Gas Average for November Bidweek prices showed a tempered gain of 9 cents to $3.53, but regional changes were moving around with the randomness of bumper cars at an amusement park.

A California regulatory judge has recommended that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) be fined $6.75 million for allegedly misstating facts to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) regarding an incorrectly classified natural gas transmission lateral on the peninsula south of San Francisco.

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has proposed a policy that would enable it to give conditional approval for barges to transport wastewater from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in bulk, a move that could potentially open the nation’s waterways as transit options.

Like the lumbering giants they resemble, oil majors take a bit more time to pivot from one target to the next, a task exceedingly difficult for North America’s top natural gas producer, ExxonMobil Corp. The pirouette to more oily targets came full circle in the third quarter in the three most strategic U.S. leaseholds, the Permian Basin and the Woodford and Bakken shales.

Northeastern natural gas markets have gotten a “strong signal” from the gas-on-gas competition in the Appalachian Basin this year, and there is now support for continued infrastructure development to take away more supplies, Williams CEO Alan Armstrong said Thursday.

ExxonMobil Corp.’s third quarter earnings fell 18% from a year ago, but for the first time since 2011, production was higher.

Royal Dutch Shell plc wants to tiptoe back into Alaska’s frigid waters as soon as next summer after taking a pause following a series of blunders and miscalculations.

Three U.S. West Coast states and the province of British Columbia (BC) in Canada agreed to align their policies for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and promoting clean energy. The nonbinding Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy calls for a “shared vision” among the four Pacific North American states (California, Oregon, Washington) and BC to “create jobs and new economic opportunities” through efforts to reign in GHG emissions.

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has appointed Brian Grove deputy secretary of administration, which is a position responsible for budget, information technology and human resources. Grove previously was senior director of corporate development for Chesapeake Energy Corp., the state’s most active natural gas driller. Among other things, the DCNR oversees drilling operations in state forests. Grove worked at one time for state Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne), and for the administrations of former Govs.Tom Ridge andMark Schweiker. John Giordano, whom Grove replaces, has gone to work for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.