David Bradley

In a flurry of activity this week, WPX Energy Inc. said farewell to CEO Ralph A. Hill, who stepped down unexpectedly, named an interim replacement, increased the size of its board of directors, and promised to add a new board member nominated by one of its major shareholders.

Chief Oil & Gas and two working interest partners have paid $500 million to Chesapeake Appalachia LLC to acquire MKR Holdings LLC, a deal that includes 130 MMcf/d of production, approximately 40 operated wells waiting on completion or pipeline, and about 75,000 gross-acre leasehold in Bradford, Lycoming, Sullivan, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, the privately-owned company said Wednesday.

A group of producers has filed at FERC a protest to Sea Robin Pipeline Co.’s proposed rate increase, calling the request for increases of as much as 1,450% for gathering service — prompted, in large part, by declining gas receipts — “excessive.”

Led by some of the biggest names in the industry, North American natural gas marketers again reported significant sales declines in 3Q2013 compared with 3Q2012, with the top three marketers — BP plc, Shell Energy NA and ConocoPhillips — reporting a combined 7.53 Bcf/d (14.5%) decline, according to NGI’s 3Q2013 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking.

Improving well performance has Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN) expecting to extract 244-249 Bcf from the Marcellus Shale next year, a 60% increase compared with an estimated 148-149 Bcf this year, the company said Tuesday.

Harold M. Korellis retiring as chairman of Southwestern Energy Co.’s board of directors at the company’s 2014 stockholder meeting. The board at that time intends to elect current CEO and president Steven L. Mueller as chairman. Mueller would continue as CEO. Korell has been with Southwestern for 17 years, including a decade as CEO and most recently as nonexecutive chairman.

Natural gas production from the “Other States” category was down compared to the previous month for only the second time in nine months, but total U.S. natural gas production, which has of late been buoyed by that shale gas-rich category, still managed a 0.3% increase in September, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Monthly Natural Gas Gross Production Report.

In a series of separate votes Tuesday, five federal agencies — the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — all issued final rules developed jointly to implement the Volcker Rule, which limits risk-taking by banks with federally insured deposits.

The outlook for natural gas has never been brighter, but in many areas — including North America, Europe and the entire southern hemisphere — using solar energy to generate electricity could become cost-competitive or even gain a cost advantage over gas-fired generation by 2025, according to a report by Boston-based Lux Research.