Sixty-nine highschoolers from across rural Oklahoma towns returned from a weeklong, all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C. sponsored by local electric cooperatives in Oklahoma. In following a longtime tradition that spans decades, the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives (OAEC) which represents 30 co-ops in Oklahoma – in coordination with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association – hold …
Small drop in oil and gas rig numbers in Oklahoma’s plays
Despite a drop of two drilling rigs in the past week, Oklahoma’s oilfield activity remained strong. Baker Hughes, in its most recent rig report, showed a decline only in the Granite Wash play where the decline of one rig left 13 others still active. The Cana Woodford added a rig to reach 21 for …
Western Colorado being opened by BLM to more oil and gas exploration
The federal government has just approved a 224-well oil and gas drilling project in western Colorado and at the same time opened a public comment period for more proposed drilling in the region. The Bureau of Land Management came out with an announcement after a court ordered the agency to redo its environmental analysis. …
Supreme Court decision raises confusion over nuclear waste storage in Texas
A recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to restart plans to temporarily store nuclear waste in rural Texas and New Mexico could mean even more opposition by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. At the same time, the company that applied for a federal license to build a storage site in West Texas indicated it …
Westwin Elements announces agreement in move to be nation’s first major nickel refinery
The company with plans to become America’s first major nickel refinery in Lawton announced its first binding commercial agreement. Westwin Elements called it a “milestone seven-year sales and purchase agreement” with Golden Age Free Zone Establishment which is a subsidiary of Apex Group-Turkiye. The company is operating a nickel/cobalt refinery test plant in …
Wind blade operation to leave Cushing
Cushing will no longer be the site of an operation where outdated wind turbine blades are “downsized” and cut into small pieces for the eventual creation of mulch for a steam-generating electric generating plant. John Bok with North Coast Enterprise, the Ohio-based firm that specializes in helping wind farms decommission or dispose of old …
Energy briefs
** Federal authorities are working to contain an oil spill in a tributary of the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, that may have come from a former nearby refinery. ** NASA’s experimental Relay 2 satellite had been dead in the sky since 1967 — until last summer, when it emitted a super-short and very powerful …
Acquisition of PHX Minerals to be final this week
The estimated $187 million acquisition of Fort Worth-based PHX Minerals Inc. by WhiteHawk Income Corporation is about to be finalized this week. WhiteHawk, a natural gas mineral and royalty company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania announced that a majority of its outstanding shares of common stock, par value at $0.01666 per share were validly tendered …
Commissioner points to “troubling trends” in electricity generation challenges
Oklahoma Corporation Commission Chair Kim David says there’s a strong reason why she and other regulators recently received recommendations from two major utilities and an electric grid regarding the future of the state’s electricity generation challenges. “Recent load shedding events, or forced power blackouts, in Louisiana, New Mexico and even across the Atlantic in …
Legislature failed again to tighten Oklahoma’s water use monitoring
Despite the efforts of some legislators, the Oklahoma legislature failed to take steps to control commercial groundwater use inthe state. An investigation by The Frontier showed there continues to be water users taking advantage of the lack of legal enforcement on water use, such as reporting how much water they use. The journalism group found …