Trigger

North Dakota has eliminated an oil-price-triggered tax break for oil and natural gas producers as part of a $400 million tax relief plan for the state's residents (SB 2144). Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed the bill into law Wednesday in Bismarck.

If oil prices stay at $50/bbl or lower for five months or longer, North Dakota’s revenue stream from the oil patch could be cut by as much as $100 million per month, state energy and tax officials said Wednesday.

A continuation of the drought that began this summer in the nation’s midsection could help keep temperatures in the region low this winter, and has the potential to trigger a repeat of 2010-2011’s wellhead freeze-offs, according to a 2012-13 Winter Outlook released by Earth Networks-WeatherBug.

A continuation of the drought that began this summer in the nation’s midsection could help keep temperatures in the region low this winter, and has the potential to trigger a repeat of 2010-2011’s wellhead freeze-offs, according to a 2012-13 Winter Outlook released Wednesday by Earth Networks-WeatherBug.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. last week pulled the trigger on multiple agreements to sell most of its Permian Basin properties to Royal Dutch Shell plc and Chevron Corp., clinched transactions with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for the rest of its midstream assets and unloaded other properties that together give the cash-strapped producer total net proceeds of $6.9 billion.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Wednesday pulled the trigger on multiple agreements to sell most of its Permian Basin properties to Royal Dutch Shell plc and Chevron Corp., and it clinched transactions with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for the rest of its midstream assets, which together would give the cash-strapped producer total net proceeds of $6.9 billion.

Regulators in North Dakota are considering a lawsuit to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating hydraulic fracturing (fracking) well stimulation. The state’s Industrial Commission might ask lawmakers for $1 million for the effort.

A ballot initiative sponsored by former natural gas industry executive Sheffield Nelson to raise Arkansas’ severance tax on natural gas production has passed the muster of the state attorney general and would go before voters next year if proponents can garner enough signatures.

FERC has proposed a rule to ensure that certain acquisitions of public utilities by holding companies that do not influence the control of the utility do not trigger certain market-based rate requirements or cross-subsidization restrictions. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is seeking comment on a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) granting blanket authorization for a holding company to acquire 10% or more, but less than 20%, of a public utility, provided that the holding company files an affirmation in support of exemption from affiliation requirements, a new FERC form. The affirmation would ensure that a holding company purchaser would not change or influence the control of the public utility. The proposed rule would exempt that public utility from certain market-based rate requirements and cross-subsidization restrictions. The new process would allow FERC to monitor and sanction entities that violate any statements made in the affirmation. The proposal came out of a workshop that took place in December 2008 to explore issues involving control and affiliation as they pertain to the Commission’s market-based rate requirements.