Approval of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project should be based on its merits, and not linked to higher taxes or more regulations, John A. Barrasso (Wyo.), John Hoeven (ND) and 22 other US Senate Republicans said in a May 23 letter to US President Barack Obama.

FracFocus, the online registry of chemicals and other hydraulic fracturing ingredients, will become easier to use when its new version goes into operation on June 1, a witness said during the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s final natural gas forum.

Statoil has agreed to acquire a 12% working interest in 5,549-sq-km Block 6 offshore Tanzania from Petrobras Tanzania Ltd., the operator.

Increased flexibility for operators remains an open question in a revised proposal for federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing, according to a May 23 legal update by Roger W. Patrick of the law firm Mayer Brown.

PetroBakken Energy Ltd., Calgary, has received shareholder approval for a name change, effective immediately, to Lightstream Resources. Ltd.

Crude prices continued falling but at a faster pace May 22, down 2% in the New York futures market on disappointing inventories, a stronger dollar, and lackluster progress in the US economy.

Virginia’s two US senators, Democrats Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine, introduced legislation that would revise the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s 2012-17 Outer Continental Shelf program by restoring to the schedule a lease sale off the state’s coast.