Regulatory

Tisha Schuller, CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA), said Monday she will leave the leadership spot later this year after a five-year run. A national firm has been hired to search for her replacement, according to COGA spokesperson Doug Flanders.

A dozen senators — 11 Democrats and one left-leaning independent, led by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) — representing eight East Coast states, are urging the Obama administration to shelve plans to open Atlantic Ocean waters to natural gas and oil drilling, which they say would unnecessarily endanger their states’ economic well being.

TransCanada Corp. has been directed to submit to a safety checkup before regulatory review begins on its Energy East proposal to switch part of its natural gas Mainline over to 1.1 million b/d of oil deliveries.

Xcel Energy’s Denver-based combination utility has asked the state regulatory commission to approve a rate hike to pay for safety and reliability improvements on its natural gas utility system and to cover the costs to run it.

Spectra Energy Partners LP’s Texas Eastern Transmission LP has filed a certificate application at FERC for its 650,000 Dth/d Gulf Markets Expansion Project, which would provide capacity to move gas from the Marcellus/Utica shales in Appalachia and the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas to the Gulf Coast through the addition of bi-directional capability.

Spectra Energy Partners LP’s Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC has received FERC authorization for its Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Project to carry 342,000 Dth/d of Marcellus/Utica shale natural gas from Ramapo, NY, to citygates in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Emails sent in late 2010 and early 2011 show that collaboration between Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) was unusually close, considering that regulators are expected to keep arms-length relationships with the companies they oversee.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead reappointed incumbents for most of the key energy-related positions in state government, including the oil/gas supervisor at the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC), Mark Watson. He also reappointed one OGCC commission member whose term had expired, Mark Doelger. At the Wyoming Pipeline Authority, Duane Zavadil was reappointed, as were two members of the Energy Resources Council (Paul Lang and Rob Wallace) and three members of the Enhanced and Improved Oil Recovery Commission (Ronald Baugh, Tom Fitzsimmons and Aaron Otteman).

It’s still in early stages, but Sempra Energy’s Octavio Simoes, who is president of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) business, said Tuesday a potential Pacific Coast export facility at the Energia Costa Azul facility in North Baja, Mexico could be operational as soon as 2021.