Rigorous

Elected officials in Ft. Collins, CO, the university town about 57 miles north of Denver, have passed a ban on oil and natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) within the city limits. The measure still must pass on a second reading in early March.

Some of the same environmental groups that have asked FERC to reconsider a May order approving Tennessee Gas Pipelines’ Northeast Upgrade Project have asked the agency to rescind its order approving Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) Northeast Supply Link project until a full environmental impact statement has been conducted.

The Minerals Management Services’ (MMS) oversight of natural gas production volumes under its royalty in kind (RIK) program is less rigorous than its oversight of crude oil production volumes, and the agency may tend to overstate the benefits of the RIK program to Congress each year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report issued Wednesday.

Canadian regulators have been bluntly warned that the continental market in natural gas has overtaken their ability to turn back the clock by policing it more tightly without damaging it. Transactions have attained a level of speed and complexity where even dipping into the stream to collect and disclose information would be disruptive, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) said in a request to the National Energy Board (NEB) to refrain from trying to interfere.

All the economic and political stars would have to be in alignment for even the relatively modest Canadian version of arctic natural gas development to make it into construction, says the senior partner.