Track

It’s not, in fact, animosity toward the oil and gas industry but rather limited staff and resources that are hindering federal officials’ abilities to fast-track deepwater drilling projects, Chevron Corp. CEO John Watson said last week.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark said Thursday the province would launch an online registry for the public to keep track of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the province, part of a strategy to provide transparency of shale gas activities.

It’s not, in fact, animosity toward the oil and gas industry but rather limited staff and resources that are hindering federal officials’ abilities to fast-track deepwater drilling projects, Chevron Corp. CEO John Watson said Wednesday.

What’s actually happening “in the ground” challenges natural gas production forecasts.

With persistently low prices and a production glut, U.S. natural gas markets are in flux. Keeping track of the ups and downs in production data, as rigs move to more oily plays, which in turn affects output and pipeline capacity, can be a challenge for market forecasters.

New Mexico regulators late Wednesday were closely monitoring the troublesome Track fire in rural parts of the state, which was threatening natural gas services in areas in and around Raton and Las Vegas, NM.

Fending off Democratic attempts to weaken pro-oil and natural gas bills, the Republican-led House Natural Resources Committee Wednesday was on track to vote out legislation that would end the de facto moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), open up the East Coast to leasing and set a strict time line for the secretary of the Department of Interior to act on permits to drill in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Although it missed its long-sought 20% renewable portfolio standard (RPS) goal last year, California is on track to hit it this year if projections by the investor-owned utilities (IOU) turn out to be correct and by 2013 if other forecasts turn out to be more accurate. This was the essence of a quarterly report released last Monday by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Former Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard, who now serves as president of the Quebec Oil and Gas Association (QOGA), said the organization welcomed the provincial government’s response to a report on hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) in the Utica Shale play.