E&P

In the state with the nation’s second-highest drilling rig count, Oklahoma elected and industry officials are considering an across-the-board hike of the tax on oil/natural drilling, but it would still be considerably lower than a counter proposal by a billionaire philanthropist in Oklahoma City.

An oil spill Thursday morning on the Plains All American Pipeline in Los Angeles near the concrete-covered Los Angeles River, which long ago was turned into a regional flood control system, was contained before it could cause serious damage.

A trio of lawmakers supporting oil and natural gas drilling in North Carolina introduced a bill Thursday that would extend the deadline for the state to develop its own regulatory program; create a new Oil and Gas Commission; reconstitute the state’s Mining and Energy Commission (MEC); invalidate local bans on oil and gas activities; ban wastewater injection wells, and establish a severance tax.

The environmental virtues of cheap, abundant and clean-burning natural gas from shale plays are offset somewhat by methane emissions that occur during gas production and transport — but not so much as to sound alarms for Duke University researchers who have studied natural gas and climate change issues.

Over the last five months, the number of horizontal drilling rigs targeting oil in the Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico has climbed by more than five dozen, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), marking a steep ramp-up in activity.

A private equity fund sponsored by oil industry stalwart T. Boone Pickens has committed $75 million to a joint venture that would provide natural gas produced at the wellhead to power onsite drilling services.

Crude oil from the Bakken Shale isn’t significantly more dangerous than crude from other plays to transport by rail and poses a lower transport risk than other flammable liquids, but it may contain higher amounts of dissolved flammable gases compared to heavier crudes, according to a report commissioned by the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM).

The Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 55-35 in favor of a bill that would levy a 2.5% severance tax on oil and natural gas produced from horizontal wells, most of which target the Marcellus and Utica shales.

The 2014 Atlantic hurricane season is expected to produce fewer than the average number of tropical storms and hurricanes, according to forecasters at AccuWeather.com, who said tropical development could be altered by the onset of an El Nino even in late summer of fall.