Jamison Cocklin

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Christopher Abruzzo, along with the agency’s top attorney, resigned on Thursday following a rapidly unfolding scandal involving sexually explicit emails that were exchanged among dozens of former and current staffers in the state attorney general’s office.

The West Virginia Department of Commerce is evaluating bids from several exploration and production (E&P) companies interested in valuable mineral rights below the Ohio River in the northern part of the state.

Continuing its push to divest non-core assets across the country in favor of its properties in the Utica and Marcellus shales, Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. has completed the sale of its non-operated working interests in Divide County, ND, for more than $23 million.

Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals has reversed a key decision by a lower court and ruled in favor of a small oil and gas company in a class action case that affected hundreds of angry landowners and threatened the industry’s ability to protect the terms of its leases.

Less than a month after federal regulators levied a $3 million fine against Trans Energy Inc. for illegally dumping materials into streams and wetlands in West Virginia, the company pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Wednesday to three counts of violating the Clean Water Act (CWA).

The Marcellus Shale has for some time now been touted for its low finding and development costs, and even as natural gas volumes in the formation are expected to surpass 16 Bcf/d this month, exploration and production (E&P) companies are bent on getting more for less.

In a move signaling the anticipated growth of U.S. shale gas production, NiSource Inc. announced a plan to take its Columbia Pipeline Group (CPG) public and form a master limited partnership (MLP) capable of handling increasing volumes with more infrastructure investment.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) has issued a cease operations order to Antero Resources Corp. after an incident that occurred on Sept. 24 in northern West Virginia, when the company inadvertently breached a producing well while drilling another on the same pad.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP has reached a long-term transportation agreement with NOVA Chemicals Corp. to transport ethane and ethane-propane mixtures from the Utica Shale through its previously announced Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access (UTOPIA) project.