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Although among the smaller, less-life threatening of Colorado’s wildfires so far this summer, the Pine Ridge fire along the Western Slope tested the gas industry with the shutting in of more than 100 wells in part of the Piceance Basin (see Daily GPI, July 9), but the response was effective and expected by the gas industry, according to Encana Corp.’s manager in charge on the ground, David Grisso.

Royal Dutch Shell plc’s window to drill in Alaska’s offshore this summer is narrowing as it awaits federal approval for its oil spill containment barge, which would be moored near two drillships.

As indicated this spring, Oregon LNG, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import project proposed for the mouth of the Columbia River at Warrenton, OR, has switched to a bidirectional import-export project, filing with FERC to do so and signing an agreement with Williams’ Northwest Pipeline Co. to expand the capacity of lines bringing Canadian gas into the Pacific Northwest.

A report in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle based on a utility filing to state regulators earlier this year has raised doubts about the safety of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) natural gas pipeline system and the utility’s nearly two-year effort to improve safety and reliability since the fatal San Bruno, CA, pipeline explosion.

Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling declined nearly 7% in the first five months of this year from the same period of 2011 in part as operators began moving from dry gas to wetter targets, according to data from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

The price for Utica Shale acreage is rising at a surprising clip if a lease agreement signed this week by the Board of Commissioners of Columbiana County, OH, and an agent for Chesapeake Energy Corp. is any indication.

The head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission decried a House appropriations subcommittee’s vote earlier this week to reduce spending for the agency in fiscal year (FY) 2013. The move comes at a time when the CFTC is gearing up to oversee the multi-trillion-dollar derivatives market.

Pro- and anti-liquefied natural gas (LNG) export advocates in Oregon reemerged this week with the start of a second FERC environmental review of the proposed 230-mile, 36-inch diameter Pacific Connector pipeline between the interstate pipeline hub in Malin, OR, and the proposed Jordan Cove LNG site at Coos Bay.

Equitrans LP has informed FERC that it accidentally spilled hundreds of gallons of drilling mud and chemicals into a creek in southwest Pennsylvania in April while building a Marcellus Shale pipeline.