Still

BP plc, still coming to terms with the devastating Macondo well blowout two years ago, said Tuesday it is selling one Gulf of Mexico (GOM) field and stakes in four others.

Al Armendariz, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Dallas office, resigned Monday following public outcry over his remarks supporting a “crucify them” approach to enforcement of the oil and natural gas industry.

The U.S. government and private energy analysts appear to have come to a foregone conclusion that the domestic natural gas drilling rig count will take a dive in 2013, but if any are “blindly assuming” that the U.S. oil rig count will “continue to move up and to the right,” they may be wrong, said the team at Raymond James & Associates Inc.

With 2,220 MW of nuclear power still out of service and snow pack levels at historic lows, California’s electric grid operator unveiled what it hopes is a stable summer electricity supply-demand assessment for review by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) Board of Governors.

A study of the electricity needs in the oil/natural gas patch was funded Monday by the North Dakota Industrial Commission for upcoming work to be overseen by the state’s power transmission authority. Separately, the commission also authorized paying for another study of future natural gas growth in the state.

BP plc still faces legal hurdles, but it jumped a big one after clinching a hard-fought settlement earlier this month with the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee (PSC) to resolve a “substantial majority of legitimate economic loss and medical claims” from the Macondo well blowout two years ago in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The PSC acts on behalf of thousands of individuals and businesses in the multi-district litigation (MDL) proceedings pending in New Orleans (MDL 2179).

A total of 13,350 wells are expected to be drilled across Canada in 2012, 1,750 (11.6%) fewer than previously forecast but still 4% more than the 12,917 wells drilled in 2011, according to the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC).

The rich are different, and the nouveau riche are different still. Newly premiered reality television show “Bayou Billionaires” demonstrates that it’s a long way from the fictitious East Egg of The Great Gatsby to Shreveport, LA, where Gerald and Kitten Dowden and kin have struck it rich in the Haynesville Shale. Now they want into the country club.

A Maryland panel is recommending that the state impose both a fee and a tax on shale gas development, as well as shift more costs to industry, but it did not propose specific details for any changes.