Seeking

A federal appeals court on Tuesday denied a petition by environmental groups seeking to halt construction of a natural gas pipeline that would traverse three counties in the heart of Marcellus Shale country in northern Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is reportedly seeking up to $1.675 billion in tax credits over the next 25 years for Royal Dutch Shell plc and other companies willing to locate an ethane cracker in the state.

Mexico’s state-owned electric utility, Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), is reportedly seeking bids from private companies to build about 1,460 miles of natural gas pipeline in the northern part of the country.

The Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is seeking comments on a request it plans to make to the Office of Management and Budget to gather information on excess flow values (EFVs). The agency said it wants to collect data on operators’ experiences, practices, benefits and costs associated with the use of ETVs. An EFV is a device designed to limit the impact of a potential leak or explosion by restricting the flow of natural gas if a line is broken or damaged. The information to be collected is necessary to conduct a cost-bnefit analysis of requiring an expansion of the use of EFVs, the PHMSA said. Comments should be submitted by July 16 to http://www.regulations.gov or by mail to the Docket Management Facility; DOT, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., West Building, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.

The Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is seeking comments on a request it plans to make to the Office of Management and Budget to gather information on excess flow values (EFVs). The agency said it wants to collect data on operators’ experiences, practices, benefits and costs associated with the use of ETVs. An EFV is a device designed to limit the impact of a potential leak or explosion by restricting the flow of natural gas if a line is broken or damaged. The information to be collected is necessary to conduct a cost-bnefit analysis of requiring an expansion of the use of EFVs, the PHMSA said. Comments should be submitted by July 16 to http://www.regulations.gov or by mail to the Docket Management Facility; DOT, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., West Building, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.

Seeking to create a uniform standard for how the oil and gas industry in the Appalachian Basin goes about drill site planning, developing and restoring the landscape once operations are complete, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) has released its first Recommended Practices (RP) report.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has issued a proposal seeking to strengthen the federal-state relationship with respect to pipeline damage prevention, as well as the enforcement process.

Two separate decisions in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York came down mostly on the side of shale play giant Chesapeake Energy Corp. in a year-old dispute over the extension of leases from landowners at below-market prices. Landowners in parts of four counties in New York state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale filed lawsuits against the Oklahoma-based shale operator.

The Interior Department is seeking industry comments to gauge interest in a potential oil and natural gas lease sale in the Cook Inlet Planning Areas off the coast of South-Central Alaska.