Respond

FERC has granted BP America Inc. and affiliates a 30-day extension to reply to the show-cause order, issued earlier this month, alleging that the company gamed the physical and financial markets at the Houston Ship Channel (HSC) five years ago. The agency proposed a near-$29 million penalty for the illegal activity, which it says took place between mid-September 2008 and Nov. 30, 2008 (seeDaily GPI,Aug. 6).

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.

A joint venture (JV) of Battelle and Winner Global LLC expects to begin building its first unit in April to respond to a potential water shortage facing oil and natural gas companies that are engaged in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) activities in the Utica and Marcellus shales in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Commerce Department has granted Valero Energy Corp. a one-year authorization to ship crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to a company-owned refinery in Quebec, Canada.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law, has a medical “gag rule” that violates a doctor’s constitutional rights to communicate with his patients.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) on Tuesday published recommended practices to respond to stray gas incidents, the fourth in a series of guidance documents published by the industry group.

Coming only weeks after he said FERC was powerless to respond to cyber threats to energy infrastructure, Chairman Jon Wellinghoff Thursday announced the creation of an office to help the Commission focus on cyber and physical security risks to energy facilities under its jurisdiction, such as interstate natural gas pipelines, gas storage facilities and the transmission of electricity in interstate commerce.

Coming only weeks after he said FERC was powerless to respond to cyber threats to energy infrastructure, Chairman Jon Wellinghoff last Thursday announced the creation of an office to help the Commission focus on cyber and physical security risks to energy facilities under its jurisdiction, such as interstate natural gas pipelines, gas storage facilities and the transmission of electricity in interstate commerce.

The backer of an initiative to raise the severance tax Arkansas charges natural gas producers has appealed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to scrutinize two energy producers for their indirect funding of anti-tax hike groups and what those groups are telling voters.