2012

Crosstex Energy Inc. will invest about $25 million in a third natural gas compression and condensate stabilization facility in the Ohio River Valley through E2, a company Crosstex formed in March with former management of Enerven Compression Services to serve Utica Shale producers.

Citing “intense pressure” from industry and its allies in Congress, a New Jersey congressman said Wednesday that the Interior Department appears to be making its proposed rules governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of oil and gas wells on public lands weaker, not stronger.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Friday agreed to sell an estimated 99,000 net acres in southwestern Pennsylvania, including 10 wells, to EQT Corp. for $113 million, which puts the sale price at roughly $876/acre.

The House has introduced legislation that would open federal waters off the coast of Virginia to oil and natural gas development, and the Senate is expected to offer a companion bill in the coming weeks.

Double Eagle Energy Holdings and private equity firm Apollo Global Management have formed a partnership to invest in oil and natural gas properties in Oklahoma, focusing primarily on the Anadarko and Ardmore basins. Fort Worth, TX-based Double Eagle already has more than 500,000 acres across Texas and the Midcontinent, according to Co-CEO Cody Campbell. The partnership with Apollo “will provide a great opportunity to expand and continue our land-centered approach to oil and gas asset acquisition, which has proven successful over the last several years,” he said. Last year, Apollo led a consortium of private equity investors in a $7.15 billion leveraged buyout of El Paso Corp.’s exploration and production business, which included an array of liquids-rich U.S. unconventional property extending across Texas, Louisiana, the Raton Basin and the Rocky Mountains (see Shale Daily, Feb. 28, 2012).

Global demand for natural gas is projected to grow at about 2% per year, about twice the rate for oil demand. And liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity, which about doubled from 2000 to 2012 could double again by 2025, according to Ernst & Young (E&Y). But it’s still early days in the U.S. LNG export game, and opinions vary widely on what will happen.

One day after a report by Harvard Law School researchers leveled withering criticism against FracFocus, the two organizations that jointly manage the oil and natural gas disclosure registry fired back for what they claim were misrepresentations of the site.

Global demand for natural gas is projected to grow at about 2% per year, about twice the rate for oil demand. And liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity, which about doubled from 2000 to 2012 could double again by 2025, according to Ernst & Young (E&Y). But it’s still early days in the U.S. LNG export game, and opinions vary widely on what will happen.

FracFocus has several design flaws that make it inadequate as a regulatory compliance tool, according to a study conducted by the Environmental Law Program at Harvard Law School.