Table of Contents

International news for oil and gas professionals

The governments of Canada and Alberta, stung by the recent US decision to postpone development of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project, have agreed to step up their monitoring of the environmental effects of oil sands developments.

Uganda's government and Tullow Oil PLC ended months of wrangling over potential tax issues by signing two new production-sharing agreements that will enable the Anglo-Irish firm to complete a $2.9 billion farmout deal with Total SA and China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC).

PetroChina, a unit of China National Petroleum Corp., has signed a binding agreement to purchase a 20% stake in Royal Dutch Shell PLC's Groundbirch assets in northeastern British Columbia.

The UK's Energy Sec. Chris Huhne has resigned after learning the Crown Prosecution Service planned to try him for perverting the course of justice.

The US Environmental Protection Agency's draft report of its investigation of possible groundwater contamination from natural gas exploration and production near Pavillion, Wyo., never implied that hydraulic fracturing was unsafe, an EPA official told a House subcommittee on Feb. 1.

The global market for oil field specialty chemicals reached nearly $16 billion in 2010 with the US and Canada accounting for 52%, which an IHS Chemical market study attributed to increasing oil and natural gas drilling activity in shale plays.

There were few surprises when the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners' energy and environmental resources and natural gas committees held a joint meeting on hydraulic fracturing at NARUC's 2012 winter meeting in Washington on Feb. 7.

The US Bureau of Land Management published a draft programmatic environmental impact statement and possible land use amendments for federally administered oil shale and tar sands acreage in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.

Improved technology and increasing production has improved the US oil and gas outlook, but federal overregulation could imperil realization of a brighter energy future, officials from two industry associations warned on Feb. 2.

Obama administration officials announced a series of initiatives that they said are aimed at bringing the best available science to energy-related decisions in the Arctic.

The US House Science, Space, and Technology Committee approved legislation that would require the US Environmental Protection Agency to further study possible impacts of increasing allowable ethanol levels in gasoline to 15%.