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One of Colorado’s richest local jurisdictions, Weld County, with extensive oil/natural gas and agricultural operations, in June launched discussions with a number of other counties in the northeastern part of the state about a move to secede and form a new state.

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.

The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Tuesday called on a Senate panel to support President Obama’s request for additional funds for the agency in fiscal year (FY) 2014 so that it can protect the derivatives and futures markets from fraud, manipulation and other abusive practices.

FERC has denied a request by Kern River Gas Transmission to reconsider an order that curbs the amount of collateral that may be collected from a noncreditworthy shipper to continue receiving service. Noncreditworthy shippers have credit ratings that are below investment grade.

Both Shell NA LNG LLC and BP Energy Co. have protested Dominion Cove Point’s (DCP) request to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities at its import terminal in Lusby, MD, citing concerns that it could degrade services to DCP’s existing import customers and that the company was showing unduly preferential treatment to certain customers.

Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) is constructing the Cactus Pipeline, a 310-mile, 20-inch diameter crude oil pipeline from McCamey to Gardendale, TX. It is expected to enter service during the first quarter of 2015. The partnership said it has a long-term agreement for a majority of the pipeline’s capacity and is talking with other potential shippers. The pipeline is expected to cost $350-375 million and transport both sweet and sour crude oil from the Permian Basin to the PAA/Enterprise Products Partners Eagle Ford Joint Venture (Eagle Ford JV) Pipeline. The Eagle Ford JV Pipeline directly serves the Three Rivers and Corpus Christi markets and can supply the Houston-area market through a connection to the Enterprise South Texas Crude Oil Pipeline. Crude oil delivered on Cactus will have access to rail loading capacity at PAA’s Gardendale station and access to the Eagle Ford JV barge dock facility in the Corpus Christi area. Initial capacity will be about 200,000 b/d.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has given Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. permission to resume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations at a natural gas well in Wyoming County that malfunctioned last month.

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) plans to hold an invitation-only meeting on Thursday to discuss a request by two energy companies to access their mineral rights under the Loyalsock State Forest.

FERC has approved CenterPoint Energy Gas Transmission LLC’s (CEGT) request to participate in the agency’s pre-filing process for a proposed pipeline system expansion in central Arkansas.