Jamison Cocklin

Pure-play Appalachian operator Rice Energy Inc. continues to scoop up land in Belmont County, OH, where all of its Utica Shale operations are centered, inking a more than $3.4 million deal Tuesday with county commissioners for another 424 gross acres.

ExxonMobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy Inc. has filed a motion with a Pennsylvania court to dismiss multiple criminal charges against it, saying that it has been unfairly targeted by state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who filed the charges last year (seeShale Daily, Sept. 12, 2013).

An increase in the fees charged for unconventional oil and gas well permits in Pennsylvania went into effect on Friday under a new flat-fee schedule that will not apply to traditional vertical wells.

Consol Energy Inc. and Noble Energy Inc. plan to form a master limited partnership (MLP) with midstream gathering assets that serve growing production from the companies’ 50/50 joint venture in the Marcellus Shale, they said Thursday.

Pennsylvania regulators and officials from Range Resources Corp. are trying to determine what, if anything, caused a large water impoundment in the southeast part of the state to leak enough brine water that high levels of chloride were detected in the soil beneath it.

While gains in horizontal drilling efficiencies have driven a large part of the U.S. onshore energy boom over the last five years, completion techniques “need to close the gap,” and better assist in reducing costs and maximizing returns, according to a group of panelists at the DUG East Conference in Pittsburgh earlier this month.

Gastar Exploration Inc. said Monday that it’s once again facing production constraints in the Marcellus Shale after its third-party midstream operator experienced another pipeline rupture in West Virginia last month, but said the problem would be offset by volumes from recently completed wells in the Midcontinent.

Despite the Utica Shale’s historic rise over the last five years in eastern Ohio, there remains significant uncertainty among investors who are not yet convinced by its limited data and gassy production profile, especially at a time when development elsewhere is on the upswing and the market still favors oil heavily.

In its fourth annual report examining the rapid pace at which oil and gas development is occurring across the Appalachian Basin, Pittsburgh-based law firm Babst Calland acknowledges that the list of challenges confronting the industry in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania is growing longer by the month.