Resistance from legislatures within both parties could make President-elect Joe Biden’s promise to end U.S. fossil fuel subsidies hard to keep, according to Reuters. The subsidies are worth billions of dollars a year to drillers and miners. Biden has said getting rid of them will generate money to pay for his $2 trillion climate plan. However, reforming tax breaks
Read More...Federal regulators and West Virginia agencies are once again rewriting environmental rules to push the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline through the permitting process, according to ProPublica. Last month the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that environmental groups are likely to prevail in a case arguing federal and state regulators wrongly approved the
Read More...Although production is still diminished in comparison to 2019, crude oil production is on the rise, according to the Energy Information Administration’s monthly report released on Nov. 30. September’s oil production reached 10.860 million barrels per day on average — an increase of 286,000 barrels per day when compared to the previous month. However, September production
Read More...Just weeks after Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed Senate Bill 790, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is pushing to strengthen regulations specific to the state’s conventional oil and gas industry, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The new proposals contain requirements to reduce disruptions to protected public resources near well sites and ensure that damaged drinking water
Read More...Following another week of increased oil drilling, the U.S. rig count climbs three units to 323 for the week ending Dec. 4, according to Baker Hughes. The rig count was lifted by the addition of five oil-directed rigs for the week, which offset a decline of two natural gas-directed rigs. The U.S. count has risen
Read More...Bank of America is the latest large U.S. bank to announce it will not finance oil and gas drilling projects in the Arctic, according to Yahoo News. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Chase, Wells Fargo and Citi have all adopted similar policies this year. Bank of America’s decision follows the Trump administration’s decision to launch the
Read More...What is fracking? Fracking is a slang term for hydraulic fracturing. Fracturing is a process by which highly pressurized fluid is pumped thousands of feet into the ground to fracture rock formations. The goal is to release the natural gas that’s locked inside the rock. Is it safe? What most concerns people about fracturing is
Read More...The Trump administration is working to rollback dozens of environmental rules that could benefit the oil and gas industry, according to Oil City News. The proposed changes would weaken protections for migratory birds, expand Arctic drilling and impact future regulation of public health threats, capping four years of unprecedented environmental deregulation by President Donald Trump.
Read More...Tapstone Energy successfully bid for and absorbed Cheapeake’s Oklahoma assets during a bankruptcy auction earlier this month, according to Natural Gas Intelligence. The recent sale includes more than 700,000 net acres covering producing formations in west and northwest Oklahoma. It adds to Tapstone’s foothold in the Anadarko Basin in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. The recently-sold
Read More...The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) recently approved stricter rules for oil and gas drilling within the state, according to OilPrice.com. The new guidelines included extending the setbacks for oil wells from homes and schools to 2,000 feet, four times the current buffer, and banning routine flaring as of January 15, 2021. The COGCC
Read More...The American Petroleum Institute has pledged to use “every tool at its disposal” including legal action if U.S. President-elect Joe Biden tries to restrict development of oil and gas drilling on federal lands, chief executive Mike Sommers said in an interview with Reuters on Monday. Biden has stated he supports a ban on new gas
Read More...Pennsylvania legislators recently passed a bill to relax environmental laws governing conventional drillers and it’s heading to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk, according to State Impact Pennsylvania. The bill, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson), would set less rigorous environmental standards for conventional drillers, who drill shallower vertical wells, than the ones for
Read More...The Trump administration began the process of auctioning off the development rights to parcels of land in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Nov. 16, according to Spectrum News. Oil and gas companies are now able to submit nominations for which parcel of land they’re interested in drilling within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s roughly 1.5
Read More...U.S. shale output is expected to continue declining into next year if crude prices remain in the $40 to $45 range, according to Rystad, a Norwegian energy research firm. Oil and gas companies have been forced to minimize exploration and production costs amid low crude prices. As a result, the average shale oil production is
Read More...The North American oil and gas industry saw fewer bankruptcies in October with only three, according to the latest monthly Oil Patch Bankruptcy Monitor report published Tuesday by Haynes and Boone LLP. However, despite seeing a slowdown, the industry hit an unwelcome milestone in October, recording its 250th bankruptcy filing since Thanksgiving 2014. Furthermore, more
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