Infrastructure

The safety of Canadian long-distance pipelines has improved but the National Energy Board (NEB) needs better information management systems to ensure good performance, a federal record-keeping agency said Tuesday.

Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC (MVP) and Consolidated Edison Inc. (Con Edison) announced Friday a pair of 20-year transportation agreements for the New York-based gas and electric utility to move 250,000 Dth/d on MVP and the connected Equitrans system operated by EQT Midstream Partners LP.

Concerns about the lack of contingency plans for outages in major natural gas infrastructure were aired Thursday at the California legislature’s first hearing in response to the three-month-old leak in a gas well at Southern California Gas Co.’s (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon underground storage facility in the Santa Susana Mountains.

A host of mechanical bit players in natural gas and oil fields has emerged as the star target for greenhouse gas reduction in Alberta, Canada’s chief producing province.

The Lone Star State led rig declines in the latest tally by Baker Hughes Inc., and the Railroad Commission of Texas reported early production figures for November.

A top official in California’s Department of Conservation (DOC) earlier this week told local news media that an injection practice used by Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) at the time it discovered a natural gas storage well leak last October needs further review by state regulators. It is part of the state’s investigation of the prolonged leak, which has displaced thousands of local residents.

On a day in which Gov. Jerry Brown delivered his state-of-the-state address with no mention of energy or regulations, California’s agency overseeing oil and natural gas on Thursday released draft rules covering the use of water, steam and underground storage in oil/gas activities.

Vancouver, BC-based Westport Innovations recently secured $71.3 million in financing from New York City-based Cartesian Capital Group. Cartesian founder and Managing Partner Peter Yu will join the Westport board.

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) on Tuesday denied Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC’s (ACP) special use permit application to cross the Monongahela and George Washington national forests in West Virginia and Virginia as described in the pipeline’s proposed route.