Stepping

U.S. safety and environmental concerns are spreading north across the border into Canada, where the National Energy Board (NEB) is stepping up scrutiny of natural gas and oil operations from exploration to transportation.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is stepping up for capacity on Texas Gas Transmission LLC’s Fayetteville Lateral, the first segment of which is expected to come on-line in the third quarter, the pipeline said Monday.

Along with stepping up its efforts to increase its electricity produced from renewables and deemphasize coal-fired generation, Minnesota-based Xcel Energy Inc. plans to decrease the proportion of natural gas-fired generation in its fleet by 2020, Xcel CFO Ben Fowke told a financial audience at the AGA Financial Forum in Miami Beach, FL, Monday.

Producer shippers are increasingly stepping up commitments to Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ (KMP) new natural gas pipeline projects out of the Rocky Mountain area, and as the pipelines move closer to the major markets, there is more interest among local distribution companies (LDC) in taking capacity, generating a producer-push/market-pull effect to get new infrastructure in place.

Forest Oil Corp. is stepping up its game, announcing it has discovered natural gas in the Utica Shale in Quebec where it has accumulated 269,000 net acres. In addition, the Denver-based independent will pay $285 million to nearly double its position in the East Texas/North Louisiana area.

Producer shippers are increasingly stepping up commitments to Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ (KMP) new natural gas pipeline projects out of the Rocky Mountain area, and as the pipelines move closer to the major markets, there is more interest among local distribution companies (LDC) in taking capacity, generating a producer-push/market-pull effect to get new infrastructure in place.

Forest Oil Corp. is stepping up its game, announcing it has discovered natural gas in the Utica Shale in Quebec where it has accumulated 269,000 net acres. In addition, the Denver-based independent will pay $285 million to nearly double its position in the East Texas/North Louisiana area.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal is stepping into another energy development controversy in his state, this time taking to task a small exploratory natural gas drilling project planned by Devon Energy Corp.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal is stepping into another energy development controversy in his state, this time taking to task a small exploratory natural gas drilling project planned by Devon Energy Corp.