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House Republicans are pushing legislation that would transfer authority to approve natural gas exports from the Department of Energy (DOE), which has granted two export requests, to FERC, which has only approved one export terminal.

Russia’s Gazprom and Japan Far East Gas Co. Ltd. have signed a memorandum of understanding for the Vladivostok-LNG project that outlines their cooperation on the Russian liquefaction and export project and arrangements for marketing of its output in Japan, Gazprom said Monday.

Wyoming Interstate Co. LLC (WIC) pipeline has asked FERC to approve an offer of settlement and an accompanying stipulation and agreement (S&A) resolving allegations that it was over-recovering its costs, resulting in unjust and unreasonable rates for its shippers.

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) reported Monday that it is one step closer to completing its $8.2 billion acquisition of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) following “unconditional approval” from the European Commission. The deal is still subject to final approval from the Euronext College of Regulators, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other national financial regulators.

Williams Partners has begun taking stock of the damage at its Geismar, LA, olefins plant caused by an explosion and fire on June 13 that killed two workers and injured more than 70 others.

As industry and energy regulators again were forced to stay away from their offices in Calgary’s flooded downtown a state of emergency still prevailed Monday in the city and much of southern Alberta, according to government and industry sources.

New York’s Con Edison said it will spend about $100 million on new natural gas mains, regulators and other upgrades to its system in several neighborhoods in Manhattan and the Bronx, enabling more customers to convert from heating oil. “Our customers are discovering the economic and environmental benefits of switching from heavy fuel oils to natural gas, and we want to do everything we can to make the conversion process easy for them,” said Nick Inga, director of the utility’s gas conversion group. A New York City environmental regulation phases out the use of No. 6 fuel oil by 2015 and No. 4 fuel oil by 2030. The regulation requires building owners to switch to another heating source, such as natural gas. Although the regulation does not require the phasing out of No. 2 fuel oil, hundreds of No. 2 oil-heated buildings have switched as well to natural gas due to economic benefits, Con Edison said.

The physical natural gas market added an average of 4 cents Monday for Tuesday delivery, led by surging prices at Northeast points prompted by warm temperatures and big jumps in next day power. Eastern points also tallied double digit gains, far outdistancing trading centers in the Midwest and Gulf as well as those in California and the Rockies. At the close of futures trading July had fallen 3.2 cents to $3.739 and August was off 3.3 cents to $3.760. August crude oil recovered $1.49 to $95.18/bbl.

The revival of the U.S. industrial sector will be “the most significant driver” to higher long-term natural gas prices, lifted by new ethylene crackers, ammonia plants and natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities fed by stores of natural gas, according to an analysis by Raymond James & Associates Inc.