The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed giving refiners an additional 18 months to comply with portions of air emissions limits that the federal agency published in December 2015. Comments on the proposal, which appeared in the Feb. 9 Federal Register, will be accepted through Mar. 25. Source: News

Depressed natural gas prices now aren’t likely to affect future US LNG exports much because most projects won’t go into operation until 2020 when global markets have improved, speakers at an Atlantic Council (AC) forum agreed. Source: News

Qatar Petroleum has agreed to acquire 30% interest from Chevron Morocco Exploration Ltd., a subsidiary of Chevron Corp., in the Cap Rhir Deep, Cap Cantin Deep, and Cap Walidia Deep leases offshore Morocco. Source: News

Light, sweet crude oil prices dropped Feb. 8 to settle back under $30/bbl, and the downward momentum continued in early Feb. 9 trading after the International Energy Agency issued a report in which it maintained its expectations for sluggish additional crude demand during 2016. Source: News

PA Resources AB, Stockholm, has agreed to divest its North Sea interests to Petrogas E&P, Muscat. Source: News

The Obama administration’s forthcoming fiscal 2017 federal budget proposal probably will contain provisions harmful to the US oil and gas industry beyond the $10/bbl crude oil tax that the White House announced last week, two major national oil and gas associations’ top officials warned. Source: News

Crude oil production in March from seven major US shale plays is expected to fall 92,000 b/d to 4.92 million b/d, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s latest Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). Source: News