May 2018 archive

SandRidge Directors Beg Shareholders Not to Approve Carl Icahn’s Takeover

  Leadership at Oklahoma City’s SandRidge Energy, Inc. sent another update to shareholders this week regarding its fight with activist investor Carl Icahn. In it, leadership begged shareholders to reject Icahn’s takeover efforts. In a Tuesday announcement, the company said it provided a status update and also urged shareholders to vote for all five of …

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Louisiana Utility Regulators Won’t Support Oklahoma’s Wind Catcher Project

The Louisiana Public Service Commission has voted to withhold its support for the Wind Catcher Wind project planned for the Oklahoma Panhandle. And it could put the entire $4.5 billion project involving Public Service Company of Oklahoma in jeopardy. The Louisiana PSC went against its staff’s recommendation to allow the Southwestern Electric Power Company to …

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North Dakota Oil Spill Runs Up $93 million Cleanup Costs in 5 years

Five years and $93 million later, a giant oil spill in North Dakota has finally been cleaned up. The spill of 840,000 gallons of oil from a Tesoro pipeline was found by a farmer near Tioga in the fall of 2013. Tesoro is now known as Andeavor. The company blamed a lightning strike on causing …

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Montana Judge Weighs Fight Over Keystone XL Pipeline

A Montana Federal Judge likely won’t have a ruling for months whether to allow construction to move ahead on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Great  Falls, Montana heard arguments last week in a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s decision to reverse President Obama’s 2015 decision to stop the …

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Pruitt Asked to Speed Up EPA Ban of TCE

A few hundred people signed a recent letter asking Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to finalize the agency’s proposed ban of the high-risk chemical trichloroethylene. It’s commonly referred to as TCE and has been affiliated with Tinker Air Force Base as well as the former Eagle Industries site in Midwest City where it was …

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Signup Begins for Selman Bat Watches in NW Oklahoma

Registration for the popular Selman Bat Watches, hosted by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, started Tuesday,  May 29. The weekend watches will be held at the Selman Bat Cave WMA, where Mexican free-tailed bats congregate each summer to give birth. Each night the bats leave the cave to hunt for flying insects, forming a ribbon …

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Governor Seeks Government Disaster Declaration From April Wildfires

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin  announced the state of Oklahoma has requested a major disaster declaration from the federal government for six counties impacted by wildfires and severe weather that occurred April 11-20. If approved, the designation would deliver federal funding to assist municipalities, counties and rural electric cooperatives with infrastructure repairs, debris removal, and other …

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Another Permian Pipeline Expansion is Announced

The amount of crude oil flowing out of the Permian Basin in West Texas and eastern New Mexico has prompted yet another pipeline operator to announce an expansion of its capacity. Houston’s Enterprise Products Partners L.P. says it is seeking customer commitments for an expansion of its Enterprise Crude Pipeline LLC West Texas System. The …

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Flowing Lava Reaches Geothermal Plant in Hawaii

While the eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is thousands of miles away from Oklahoma, it still fascinates us. And now the lava has reached the Puna Geothermal Venture plant creating yet another potential disaster. The lava at last word covered a well and was threatening another. “Lava flow from Fissures 7 and 21 crossed into …

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Rig Count Soared Nationally and Edged Upward in Oklahoma

The number of oil and gas rigs working in Oklahoma and the rest of the country saw no letup in increased activity over the past week. Oklahoma’s count rose by 2 to reach 140 rigs while the national count jumped 13 to hit 1,059. The national count increased an increase of 15 more oil rigs …

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