-Valero’s Memphis refinery is back up and running at normal rates after cold weather prompted a system shutdown on Jan. 6. An unidentified source told Bloomberg the frigid conditions caused instrument freezes and burst water lines.
-The American Petroleum Institute said that while oil well drilling completions were up 5% in 2013, natural gas well completions fell 20%. API stats director Hazem Arafa attributed the bump in oil drilling to greater access to state and private lands.
-The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Friday the Cameron LNG project will avoid adverse environmental impacts by collocating pipelines with existing rights of way, among other recommendations.
-Chevron’s UK subsidiary has made a final investment decision and received final approval to move forward on the development of the Alder Field in the Central North Sea. The Alder project — expected to begin producing in 2016 — has a planned design capacity of 110 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and 14,000 barrels of condensate per day.
-The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the Dec. 30 crude oil train crash in Casselton, N.D., reveals the incident caused $6.1 million worth of damage and spilled 400,000 gallons of oil. Eighteen of the 20 tank cars that derailed were punctured.
