World

Houston’s ConocoPhillips, one of the biggest integrated oil and gas producers in the world, on Thursday announced that it would become a pure-play exploration and production (E&P) independent and spin off its refining business as a new publicly traded company.

The El Nino-Southern Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation affected regional climates and contributed to many of the world’s significant weather events in 2010, including global temperatures that were among the warmest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Making ethanol from newly abundant natural gas instead of corn would avoid taking food off the world’s table and could create another market for growing gas supplies coming from U.S. and other shale basins. Dallas-based Celanese Corp. last year announced a technology to do just that and is gearing up its efforts as Washington lawmakers move closer to repealing an ethanol subsidy supported by corn growers.

Making ethanol from newly abundant natural gas instead of corn would avoid taking food off the world’s table and would create another market for growing gas supplies coming from U.S. and other shale basins. Dallas-based Celanese Corp. last year announced a technology to do just that.

As a further demonstration that it’s a more transparent world for natural gas pipeline operations in California, Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas and Electric Co. (SDG&E) on Thursday outlined efforts to step up safety and maintenance following the pipeline explosion in San Bruno, CA, last year.

While the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) doesn’t know if any companies are still delivering Marcellus Shale wastewater to treatment facilities in the state, it won’t tolerate any “slackers,” Secretary Michael Krancer told an audience in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

The Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is “indispensable to the world’s energy future,” but BP plc has no timetable about when it may be returning to the deepwater, a top executive said last week.

The Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is “indispensable to the world’s energy future,” but BP plc has no timetable about when it may be returning to the deepwater, a top executive said Tuesday.

A rise in shale gas supplies and implications from last fall’s San Bruno, CA, pipeline rupture and explosion have caused California Energy Commission (CEC) planners to rethink their update of the state’s 2011 Integrated Energy Policy Report.