American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2019 - 20

IndustryDigest
mercury and copper. Earlier in May,
Williams said it had received the
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission's certificate of public
convenience and necessity authorizing
the Northeast Supply Enhancement
project, an expansion of the Transco gas
pipeline running from Texas to the
Northeast Coast that is designed to
serve New York markets in time for the
2020-21 winter heating season.
According to the company, the
project is designed to provide 400,000
dekatherms a day of additional gas
supply to the National Grid, the largest
distributor of gas in the northeastern
United States. The enhancement project
would allow National Grid to move gas
from Pennsylvania's shale gas fields to
the New York City area.
National Grid indicates the project is
crucial to convert 8,000 customers a
year from heating oil to gas in New
York City and Long Island. The
company says it will not connect any
new gas customers in those areas until
the pipeline project is approved.
According to a Williams spokesman,
the state agency raised a minor
technical issue with the company's
certification, and it plans to quickly
resubmit the application.
President Trump signed two
executive orders April 10 on energy
infrastructure. Among the EO's
provisions, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency is directed to review
its water quality certifications under
Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.
Also in April, Williams announced
it was initiating a binding open season
for Regional Energy Access, an
incremental expansion of the Transco
pipeline to provide firm gas
transportation capacity to northeastern
markets. The pipeline is being
designed to provide more than a billion
cubic feet a day from Marcellus Shale
production areas to Pennsylvania and
New Jersey local distribution
companies and power generators. ❒

BLM Proposes To Open
New California Acreage
To Oil, Gas Operations
MARINA, CA.-The Bureau of Land
Management's proposed resource
management plan amendment and final
environmental impact statement for its
20 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Central Coast field office in California
plans to open 683,000 acres of federal
mineral estate to leasing.
The agency action is a reaction to a
2016 court case, with anti-development
groups, including Los Padres
ForestWatch and the Center for
Biological Diversity, suing the
California Division of Oil, Gas and
Geothermal Resources in the U.S.
District Court, Central District of
California. The groups allege the final
EIS failed to take the "hard look"
required by the National Environmental
Policy Act at the environmental impacts
of the RMP, when, under the RMP, 25%
of new wells were expected to be
fractured, court documents state.
Therefore, the judge ruled, BLM was
required to prepare a supplemental EIS
that analyzed the environmental
consequences of using fracturing
technology.
Under the BLM preferred
alternative, leasing with controlled
surface stipulations would be allowed
on that acreage in Fresno, Monterey and
San Benito counties. The agency also
would open another 42,400 acres to
leasing with no surface occupancy, and
close to leasing 67,500 acres of federal
minerals in designated wilderness areas,
wilderness study areas and national
monuments, BLM describes.
According to the agency, the
planning documents analyze six
alternative approaches to oil and gas
leasing and development, specifying
which BLM-managed public lands or
subsurface federal mineral estate would
be open to future leasing, and the
stipulations that would applied to
protect resources.
The proposed RMPA and final EIS
fulfill the BLM's commitment to a court
order to prepare a more detailed
environmental analysis of oil and gas
leasing and the potential impacts of
hydraulic fracturing and other enhanced
well stimulation techniques, the agency
says, adding it will use the final EIS to
issue and/or reissue some or all of the
14 leases subject to the court's decision.
"We are not talking about a national
park. We are not talking about a
wilderness area. These are lands that the
Obama administration affirmed are
appropriate to carefully controlled
development," Kathleen Sgamma,
president of the Western Energy
Alliance, is quoted as saying. ❒

Gas Storage Levels
Increase By 404 Bcf
WASHINGTON-Underground
natural gas storage in the United States
stood at 1.866 trillion cubic feet on May
24, 12.1 percent below the five year
average, according to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration. That was
up 404 billion cubic feet from the 1.462
Tcf in storage on April 26, which was
17.8 percent below the five-year
average. The May 24 storage number
was 155 Bcf more than a year ago,
when gas storage stood at 1.711 Tcf.
According to EIA, gas storage in the
East Region was 383 Bcf on May 24, 3.5
percent below the five-year average, but
104 Bcf more than on April 26, when
storage stood at 279 Bcf, which was 5.7
percent below the five-year average. East
Region gas storage on May 24 was 59
Bcf more than it was a year ago.
Gas storage in the Midwest Region
stood at 399 Bcf on May 24, 10.1
percent below the five-year average and
109 Bcf more than the 290 Bcf in storage
on April 26, which was 17.4 percent
below the five year average. May 24 gas
storage in the Midwest Region was 88
Bcf more than a year ago.
In the Mountain Region, EIA says,
gas storage was 93 Bcf on May 24, 31.6
percent below the five-year average and
18 Bcf more than the 75 Bcf stored on
April 26, which was 37.0 percent below
the five year-average. Gas storage in the
Mountain Region was 19 Bcf less than a
year ago.
Gas storage in the Pacific Region
was 198 Bcf on May 24, 22.0 percent
below the five-year average and 46 Bcf
more than the 152 Bcf stored on April
26, which was 31.8 percent below the
five-year average. Pacific Region gas
storage on May 24 was down 22 Bcf
from a year ago.
In the South-Central Region, gas
storage levels on May 24 were 793 Bcf,
11.2 percent below the five-year average
and up 127 Bcf from the 666 Bcf in
storage on April 26, which was 15.5
percent below the five-year average.
The May 24 gas storage level for the
South-Central Region was up 49 Bcf
from a year ago. ❒

Coming In July
Seismic Geophysics &
Reservoir Modeling
American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2019

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