Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is closing both its Charleston, WV, and Denver regional offices by the end of the summer, but the CEO said there are no plans to sell any of its Rocky Mountain, Midcontinent or Marcellus Shale reserves.

Cabot plans to open a new North regional office in Pittsburgh to handle the company’s Marcellus Shale assets, which are located in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The North office also will oversee development in the Rockies region.

In addition, Cabot is forming a new South region to oversee the Gulf Coast and Midcontinent assets.

“Decisions that disrupt our employee’s lives are never easy, but we feel these organizational changes will provide Cabot Oil & Gas the best and most efficient structure long-term,” said CEO Dan O. Dinges. “With our West region drilling program already complete for the year and our expanding Marcellus program in need of technical personnel, it was a natural progression to better utilize our talented workforce.

Phil Stalnaker, who had been managing the western assets, has been named the regional manager of the North office. Matt Reid, Cabot’s Gulf Coast regional manager, will move into the South region manager post. Thomas Liberatore, who was vice president of Cabot’s East region, resigned following the consolidation.

“Current plans include providing transfers to more than half the impacted staff, with the majority being asked to move to Pittsburgh to assist in furthering our Marcellus effort,” he said. Even though the West Virginia office is closing, “a number of the North region operations personnel will remain” in the state.

“Also, the natural question resulting from such a strategic shift is, are you exiting the West? I firmly believe there is a future for conventional natural gas resources, and as such we have no plans to sell either our Rocky Mountain or Midcontinent reserves,” said Dinges.

Cabot expects to spend $3.5-5 million for the office revamp.

In April the company agreed to sell its Canadian operations to a private company for C$78 million in cash and C$24 million in new equity to reduce its debt (see Daily GPI, April 15).

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