Task

A governor’s task force proposed as an 11th-hour compromise to avoid a ballot proposition fight over the issue of local control of oil/natural gas drilling, particularly hydraulic fracturing (fracking), has yet to get off the ground since Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced plans for it early this month.

Progress is being made in combating ozone at new oil/gas drilling sites in the Upper Green River Basin in Wyoming, but older sites are being left to pollute, according to an ad hoc report by a small number of a 28-member governor's task force that was disbanded two years ago.

Oil and gas companies are claiming too many trade secret exemptions in FracFocus disclosures of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking), and the registry contains several errors, according to a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) task force charged with reviewing the website.

A North Dakota exploration and production (E&P) task force on Wednesday outlined plans to slash the amounts of associated, or flared, natural gas over the next six years to as little as 10% from the current levels of more than 30%.

Determining whether Lower 48 state natural gas onshore production is falling is proving to be a difficult task because of the variable winter, but the aggregate amount of production curtailments from well freeze-offs “point to peak supply losses of as much as 1.8 Bcf/d,” according to Barclays Capital.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a small agency with the herculean task of regulating the derivatives and futures markets, could face severe budget cuts that would prevent it from implementing many of the reforms proposed under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) last Wednesday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a small agency with the herculean task of regulating the derivatives and futures markets, could face severe budget cuts that would prevent it from implementing many of the reforms proposed under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) Wednesday.

Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) Commissioner David Porter, founder of the state’s Eagle Ford Task Force, wants more excess natural gas to be used for power generation at drilling sites instead of being flared.

Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) Commissioner David Porter, founder of the state’s Eagle Ford Task Force, wants more excess natural gas to be used for power generation at drilling sites instead of being flared.