-Pemex has resumed exports of crude oil to the West Coast after a six-year hiatus, Reuters reports. Mexico’s state-owned oil company shipped approximately 340,000 barrels of light, sweet crude to Valero’s Benicia, Calif., refinery in January and February and 350,000 barrels to Tesoro’s San Francisco plant in March. Pemex stopped shipping oil to the West Coast in 2008, but it is now in the process of diversifying its export contracts.
-GDF Suez signed a 20-year agreement to sell 270,000 metric tons per year of natural gas from Cameron LNG to Japan’s Tohoku Electric Power utility. Via Platts, it is the first-ever long-term LNG sales agreement with a Japanese firm for GDF Suez, which has a 16.6% stake in Cameron LNG. The Hackberry, La., facility last month cleared a key environmental review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
-Hess Corp. today celebrated the expansion of its gas processing plant in Tioga, N.D. The plant now processes approximately 120 million cubic feet of gas per day, up from 100 million cubic feet per day prior to the expansion. Hess said the plant would soon process at least 250 million cubic feet per day, with potential capacity beyond 300 million cubic feet per day. The company has spent more than $1.5 billion since 2012 to improve infrastructure to accommodate higher production of natural gas and NGLs.
-The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has asked federal regulators to audit power generators’ claimed capabilities in the wake of outages caused by the recent harsh winter. Via Columbus Business First, eight of the 10 highest winter electricity demands in local transmission organization PJM Interconnection’s history happened in January. The commission blames improper maintenance of generating units for the winter outages.
