Wyoming

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is backing out of the Rockies to focus on Appalachia and the Midcontinent.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is backing out of the Rockies to focus on Appalachia and the Midcontinent.

Repairs are under way and expected to be completed by mid-week on Bison Pipeline, a section of which experienced a rupture last week in Wyoming (see Daily GPI, July 25), shutting in the pipeline. A spokesman for TransCanada Corp., owner of Bison, told NGI the preliminary investigation into the cause of the rupture has determined that it was the result of mechanical damage. “Something struck the pipe,” said spokesman James Millar. However, he could not say whether there was excavation taking place in the area of the rupture in Campbell County, WY. TransCanada is working with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration on its restart plan for the pipeline, Millar said. “When they approve that restart plan…then we can begin flowing gas on Bison.”

Wyoming reported receiving a $10.4 million grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to help support Gov. Matt Mead’s sage grouse protection executive order issued earlier this year. The funding is in addition to $17 million the state has already received for conserving sage grouse from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Emphasizing that the program is voluntary, the state head of the implementation team said the USFWS funds will be used to deal with sage grouse habitat fragmentation.

The natural gas industry and local governments are among the dozen organizations that are part of a rate settlement approved recently by the Wyoming Public Service Commission (PSC) for PacifiCorp’s Rocky Mountain Power utility. The settlement authorizes a $44.6 million hike effective Sept. 22. Kinder Morgan Interstate Gas Transmission LLC and the Powder River Basin Resource Council, along with the city of Casper and Natrona County, were among the settling parties. The Salt Lake City-based utility originally had asked the PSC to approve a $97.9 million rate increase. A utility spokesperson said even before the agreement the utility had lowered its original request substantially due to federal tax law changes and reduced power costs. Casper’s attorney said the settlement addresses system reliability issues by including a capital improvement plan.

Buoyed by a new gas processing plant and 10 Marcellus Shale wells drilled in the first quarter, Rex Energy Corp. is increasing its capital budget by $26.7 million for the year to support increased drilling activities.

Using Wyoming’s approach as a model, a rarely convened panel in Idaho Tuesday adopted some temporary rules for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for natural gas. The state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, consisting of Idaho’s five statewide elected officials, including its governor, unanimously took its action that was prompted by natural gas drilling in a single county, Payette.

After a sixth smog alert this year for the Pinedale Anticline natural gas production area in western Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead, major producers and the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) met earlier this month to address a six-year-old air quality attainment issue that had seemed to be in remission over the past two years.

After a sixth smog alert this year for the Pinedale natural gas production area in western Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead, major producers and the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) met earlier this month to address a six-year-old air quality attainment issue that had seemed to be in remission over the past two years.