Regulatory

Natural gas storage facilities are facing new pressure after the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) pipeline unit issued a safety advisory Tuesday for operators to immediately inspect their facilities. Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas), wrestling with the three-month-long Aliso Canyon storage well leak, also is facing more lawsuits.

In a court case still requiring approval by a federal judge, federal agencies and environmental groups have agreed to a settlement calling for reviews of the proposed use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in drilling offshore California. The agreements were filed in a federal court in Los Angeles last Friday.

The next generation of Alberta natural gas, liquids byproducts and oil wells will be granted reprieves from provincial royalties by a government attempt to make Canada’s chief producer jurisdiction competitive with the United States.

As the Senate prepares to vote on a comprehensive energy reform bill as early as this week, a number of Senate Democrats are pushing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to expand its proposed oil and gas methane emissions limits.

The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has approved a number of actions to help Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) replace its aging natural gas distribution pipelines.

A pair of natural gas industry trade groups urged FERC not to expand its environmental reporting requirements for project applicants as it updates its guidelines.

A Houston-based subsidiary of France’s Total SA has asked a federal judge to issue a declaratory judgment that would guarantee the company a chance to have allegations currently under investigation at FERC be heard by a jury trial in a federal district court.

While the long-term political, regulatory and economic ramifications of the three-month-old Aliso Canyon natural gas storage well leak for Sempra Energy and its Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) unit are still unknown, the inevitability of significant, longer term impacts on the gas storage sector nationally is becoming clearer with each day and week that the leak continues. More federal regulation is coming, based on current developments in California and Washington, DC.

Canada’s three-month-old Liberal government Wednesday added a formal political layer to the national approval apparatus for large, federally regulated oil and natural gas projects.