Charlie Passut

Diamondback Energy Inc. announced Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire more than 6,000 gross acres of leasehold in the Midland Basin, part of the Permian Basin of West Texas, from undisclosed third party sellers for approximately $174 million.

A coalition of New York landowners that supports natural gas development filed a lawsuit Friday in the state Supreme Court against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state departments of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Health (DOH) and their respective commissioners over delays in considering high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF).

The Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) urged FERC to quickly approve a proposal by ISO New England Inc. (ISO-NE) to implement a “pay for performance” (PFP) system that would compensate power generators in the region when they exceed their obligations during periods of system stress.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that an additional 60 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired generating capacity will be retired by 2020. It also said natural gas prices will rise in the near term, in part due to increased demand by industrial customers and, eventually, demand for exports from liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities.

A pair of pipeline projects designed to carry natural gas from the Marcellus Shale to markets in the Northeast would have adverse environmental impacts that could be mitigated, FERC said Wednesday.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) said a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc wants to pay for relocating a portion of a state highway and for improvements to an interchange with an interstate highway in order to accommodate a proposed “world class” ethane cracker in the western part of the state.

U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. and Union Pacific Railroad Co. have struck a deal to build a rail-accessible silica sand storage facility in Odessa, TX, a move that enables the company to bring more of its products to the Permian Basin for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations.

One week after executives at MDU Resources Group Inc. said the company was looking to drill for oil and natural gas in a third play, their exploration and production (E&P) unit, Fidelity Exploration & Production Co., had agreed to purchase working interests (WI) and a leasehold in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

So far this winter, temperatures east of the Rocky Mountains have been significantly colder; propane supplies have tightened in the East and Midwest regions; and a new record high for natural gas withdrawal from storage has been set, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).