Energy news in brief

** Mexico’s largest oil refinery, the Salina Cruz refinery, is offline after a fire broke out in the refinery following a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in the area. Pemex, Mexico’s state-run oil company, said that the fire was immediately extinguished. The refinery has an installed capacity of 330,000 barrels of crude oil per day but hasn’t been producing that much for quite some time.

** A New York county enacts a residential energy tax, expected to cost average homeowners $6 a month, to offset a $100 million budget deficit caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

** Columbia Gas is fined $53 million and ordered to be sold for its fatal gas explosion in Massachusetts in 2018.

** Wyoming pushes forward in its lawsuit against Washington blocking a coal export terminal, with Gov. Mark Gordon claiming the move violates the Constitution.

** Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. announced that it plans to undertake a reverse stock split of Northern’s common stock at a ratio ranging from any whole number between 1-for-6 to 1-for-10, as determined by Northern’s Board of Directors, and a reduction in the number of authorized shares of Northern’s common stock.

** Harvest Midstream Company announced the completion of the new Ingleside Pipeline and provided an update on the Harvest Midway Terminal’s construction schedule. The Ingleside Pipeline, a 24-mile, 24-inch oil pipeline, has a capacity of 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) with up to 380,000 bpd supplied by the existing Harvest Eagle Ford pipeline systems. The pipeline originates at the Harvest Midway Terminal located in Taft, Texas.

** Legal battles continue to grow over the Permian Highway Pipeline as environmental groups cite a lack of oversight along the project’s path.

** Eighteen states, including some in the Southeast, urge the Supreme Court to reinstate an Army Corps program that fast-tracks water crossing permits for pipeline projects. 

** A woman who once worked as a field engineer for oil-field services giant Schlumberger has filed a lawsuit against the company alleging pervasive sexual harassment and a workplace culture that accepted it.

** Chicago cryptocurrency mining company EZ Blockchain is eyeing the large volumes of wasted natural gas being burned in the Permian Basin of West Texas as a potential source of power for portable servers to create digital currencies and put them into circulation.

** Energy companies are already eyeing exports to Mexico and other business opportunities after federal officials approved regulatory changes that will allow shipments of liquefied natural gas by rail.  U.S. officials on Friday authorized the use of cryogenic railcars to ship the supercooled fuel from production plants to destinations across the nation.

** Two California companies, United Pumping Service, Inc. and United Storm Water, Inc. pleaded guilty to violations of the Clean Water Act in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The charges alleged they aided and abetted each other to transport and deliver six separate loads of industrial wastewater to another company’s facility. The receiving company then discharged the industrial wastewater, which contained arsenic, to a municipal treatment plant in Los Angeles County. United Pumping Services, Inc. and United Storm Water, Inc. did not disclose the arsenic concentration in the wastewater.

** An agricultural firm gets permits to apply treated water from oil and gas production to arid land in three Wyoming counties.

** Colorado Springs officials this week will debate the role of natural gas as the city shuts down its coal-fired power plants.

** Critics say the BLM forcing some public comments to only be obtained through the Freedom of Information Act is part of a pattern of the Interior Department delaying or denying requests for basic information from journalists and the public.