Regulatory

Federal officials urged the court overseeing the Macondo well blowout litigation to slam BP plc and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. with substantial Clean Water Act (CWA) fines to send a message to the entire exploration industry.

Williams Partners’ Transcontinental Gas Pipeline (Transco) has filed at FERC for its 1.7 Bcf/d Atlantic Sunrise expansion, which would deliver Marcellus Shale gas to Mid-Atlantic and southeastern markets.

Updated safety standards for newly constructed facilities that work on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the result of a lengthy investigation into the aftermath of the Macondo well blowout five years ago, were unveiled Monday by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG).

A disputed federal oil and natural gas auction held in 2008 for the Chukchi Sea in Alaska was upheld on Tuesday by the Obama administration, moving the biggest leaseholder Royal Dutch Shell plc closer to developing its leasehold.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has voted unanimously to approve a program that would allow Peoples Natural Gas Co. and its affiliates to charge monthly installments for the cost of expanding natural gas service to interested customers in underserved parts of the state.

Pennsylvania Attorney General (AG) Kathleen Kane has announced a proposed $2.3 million settlement with the retail and wholesale electric generation supplier Pennsylvania Gas & Electric (PaG&E) to resolve consumer complaints that the company deceptively marketed its variable electric rates during the brutal cold of winter 2013-2014.

Seven conservation groups have filed suit against the Department of Interior (DOI) and its U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) after regulators declined to add two rare wildflowers that only grow in the Uinta Basin in Colorado and Utah to the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Unconventional drilling in the Lower 48 has revitalized U.S. natural gas and oil production, but it’s time to explore abundant reserves in Alaska, where an existing reserve base of 920 Tcf and 38 billion bbl of liquids awaits development, the National Petroleum Council (NPC) said Friday.

While regulators and lawmakers wrangle with safety standards for shipping crude oil by rail, interest is growing in shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail as well.