Spokesperson

Rail transport of Bakken crude oil is again in the spotlight following the derailment of 16 of 96 Union Pacific Railroad (UP) crude-hauling tank cars in Oregon last Friday just east of the Columbia River Gorge.

Since its discovery almost three weeks ago, a leak at Sempra Energy Southern California Gas Co.’s (SoCalGas) 100 Bcf Aliso Canyon underground storage field has tied up the utility and a cadre of outside well experts who have so far been unable to stop the seepage.

Bakken crude oil being transported on the BNSF train that derailed in northeast North Dakota last Wednesday was treated to lessen its volatility under state requirements established late last year (see Shale Daily, Dec. 11, 2014), officials told NGI’s Shale Daily on Friday.

Bakken crude oil being transported on the BNSF train that derailed in northeast North Dakota last Wednesday was treated to lessen its volatility under state requirements established late last year (see Shale Daily, Dec. 11, 2014), officials told NGI's Shale Daily on Friday.

Bellevue, WA-based Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has obtained U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) authorization to bring in up to 1 Bcf annually of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in truckloads for a natural gas-fired electric generation peaking plant in the state of Washington.

Bismarck, ND-based MDU Resources Group has placed on hold its plans for building a major natural gas pipeline to carry associated gas supplies from the Bakken oil boom. Dakota Pipeline is slated to be a $650 million project and had been aimed at a late 2017 start-up date.

Two contract workers were hurt, one critically, on Wednesday in far western Colorado’s Mesa County while working on a valve at an Encana Corp. gas well that ruptured, a Denver-based company spokesperson told NGI Thursday.

A unit of Bismarck, ND-based MDU Resources Group said Thursday it is making progress on two new natural gas pipelines, with each dependent on unrelated market developments, to serve the Williston Basin and Bakken/Three Forks shale production in North Dakota.

The source, but not the cause, of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tank explosion and fire in Washington state has been found, a Salt Lake City-based spokesperson for Williams’ Northwest Pipeline Co. told NGI on Friday. More definitive information is probably still 10 to 14 days away, she said.