John Hoeven News

U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday laid out a list of demands they seek before making any deal to end the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports in the wide-ranging government funding bill. With oil prices falling to nearly seven-year lows of less than $40 a barrel, producers are desperate to open crude sales to global markets. They say lifting the ban would give U.S. allies an alternative to Russia and OPEC countries for oil, breathe life into the drilling industry, and increase U.S. energy security. Opponents say it would hurt jobs at refineries, raise the amount of oil carried by trains, which have suffered a slew of recent accidents while carrying crude, and hurt the environment. "I've heard a long list, a long list of things," Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told reporters.

'Move America Act of 2015' would help fund landside improvements to U.S. The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA)—the unified and recognized voice of seaports in the Americas—publicly voiced support for the bi-partisan Move America Act of 2015 infrastructure bonding and credits legislation introduced today in Congress by Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Senator John Hoeven (R-N. Dak.). The Move America proposal would provide more tax-exempt financing for public-private partnerships…

U.S. lawmakers on the Senate Energy Committee will vote on a bill this week aimed at speeding up the Department of Energy's review of liquefied natural gas export applications. The panel will weigh a bill introduced by Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota, over the summer that would require the DOE to issue a decision on gas export projects within 45 days after companies have filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. While the bill may be able to pass the committee…

The U.S. Energy Department on Wednesday approved liquefied natural gas exports from two projects, as lawmakers pressed the administration to move quickly to clear a backlog of applications to ship gas abroad. Sempra Energy's Cameron LNG facility in Louisiana and Carib Energy's small-scale export project in Florida are the first projects to receive final permits from the department to export gas to non-free-trade-agreement countries since Cheniere's Sabine Pass project was approved in 2012. Until now Sabine Pass was the only project fully permitted at the federal level. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted the $10 billion Cameron project a construction license in June after it was issued a conditional export permit by the Energy Department earlier in the year.

Claimed to be the world's largest and most powerful anchor-handling icebreaker the US$200 million, 360 ft vessel was christened Aiviq in the presence of dignatories including U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sen. John Hoeven, several members of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission and Shell executives. The Aiviq whose primary task off the coat of Alaska will be laying anchors for drilling rigs will also be equipped to deal with oil spill clean-up operations…