The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Feb. 3 determined that a court-ordered revised environmental review of Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 pipeline project is adequate. The agency also approved and re-issued the certificate of need and route permit for the project, which has been delayed for a year due to opposition from environmental groups and permitting…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Jan. 24 vacated three orders issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2017 granting extensions of small refinery exemptions under the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, program. The court ruled that the agency cannot allow extensions of exemptions that had lapsed, noting that none of…
The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management will offer 25 parcels of land, totaling about 32,700 acres located on Uintah County, at the March quarterly oil and gas lease sale, according to a Jan. 23 news release. The bureau will hold the lease sale online on March 10. The agency will conduct an additional…
The U.S. Interior Department issued a decision allowing the Bureau of Land Management to offer a right-of-way grant for TC Energy to construct the Keystone XL pipeline across 44 miles of federal lands in Montana, according to a Jan. 22 news release. The decision brings the $8 billion project a step closer to construction despite pending…
U.S. exports of crude oil and petroleum products exceeded imports by 89,000 barrels a day in September, a turning point from only a decade ago, when imports surpassed exports by 10 million barrels a day, according to a Dec. 31 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency attributed the trend to changes in…
Year-over-year increases in U.S. proved reserves resulted in record-high levels of crude oil and lease condensate, up 12 percent, and natural gas up 9 percent in 2018, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves, Year-End 2018 report. Strong oil and natural gas prices in 2018 drove the increase in…
Venting and flaring of U.S. natural gas reached its highest average annual level of 1.28 billion cubic feet per day in 2018, with North Dakota and Texas accounting for 82 percent of the amount, according to a Dec. 6 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. As crude oil production has outpaced the buildout of…
U.S. energy sector carbon emissions rose by 2.7 percent last year compared to 2017, reaching 5.27 billion metric tons, according to a Nov. 26 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Emissions in 2018 rose for the first time since 2014, driven by higher natural consumption to meet demand during extreme weather conditions and transportation-related…
The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management on Nov. 21 issued a draft environmental review for a new integrated activity plan for the 23-million acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The proposal includes an alternative that would open as much as 18.3 million acres, or about 80 percent of the reserve, to oil and gas development,…
The California Department of Conservation halted approval of new permits for wells that use high-pressure steam to extract oil from underground formations and instituted a scientific review of pending applications to conduct hydraulic fracturing and other well stimulation practices, according to a Nov. 19 news release. The new measures stem from legislation enacted last month…
The U.S. Energy Department awarded a 20-year contract to ExxonMobil Pipeline Company to operate the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s two-million-barrel capacity St. James marine terminal and Bayou Choctaw 36-Inch Pipeline, according to an Oct. 28 news release. The new lease, effective Jan. 1, 2020, ends Shell Pipeline Company LP’s 22-year control of the facilities. The St.…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Oct. 15 proposed to calculate the small refinery exemptions for 2020 under the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, program based on a three-year average of the relief recommended by the Energy Department. The biofuel industry criticized the proposal for failing to meet the Oct. 4 agreement with the Trump…
