-Chicago-based specialty chemicals maker Stepan Co. will complete front-end engineering and design work on a possible $60 million to $70 million chemical production facility in Ascension Parish, La. Via the Baton Rouge, La., Advocate, Stepan is expected to make a final investment decision on the project in the second quarter of 2015. The plant would manufacture intermediate chemicals for other Stepan sites and finished products for the company’s customers.
-The EPA’s internal watchdog said today the agency does not go far enough in addressing methane leaks from natural gas pipelines. Via Reuters, the EPA Inspector General recommended the EPA partner with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to improve oversight of methane leaks. The inspector general’s report said more than $192 million worth of natural gas was lost in 2011 due to methane leaks.
-U.S. oil well completions rose by 5% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2014, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API). API Director of Statistics Hazem Arafa attributed the increase to access to private and state lands. Natural gas well completions decreased, but exploratory gas wells increased by 22%, API said.
-A judge in Colorado on Thursday threw out a voter-approved ban on fracking in the city of Longmont. Via Bloomberg, Judge Dolores Mallard ruled that the city could not overrule the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission given that the matter is of mixed local and state interest. Opponents of fracking are mounting an effort to hold a statewide vote in November that would effectively ban the practice in the state. Colorado’s governor, however, has aligned with business interests to try to stop it.
-Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) believes the EPA will increase its biofuels blending target for the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard, Platts reports. The agency last November proposed a decrease in the biofuels blending mandate for the first time. Franken, however, said he and other Democratic senators who discussed the matter with advisors to President Obama expect “higher numbers” than the 15.21 billion gallons the EPA proposed in its preliminary rule.
