Added

Halcon Resources Corp. said it has acquired more than 50,000 net acres of leasehold in an Eagle Ford Shale play in East Texas, and plans to eventually triple its presence and invest $100 million there this year.

Determining whether Lower 48 state natural gas onshore production is falling is proving to be a difficult task because of the variable winter, but the aggregate amount of production curtailments from well freeze-offs “point to peak supply losses of as much as 1.8 Bcf/d,” according to Barclays Capital.

Physical gas prices Tuesday overall on average added about 6 cents with nearly all points experiencing gains. Midwest points were firm as an exiting storm still made itself felt in the form of 30 mph gusts and typically constrained points in the Northeast also made outsized gains. The expiring March futures contract exited on a modest note, and at the end of trading March had risen 1.3 cents to $3.427 and April had fallen 1.4 cents to $3.456. April crude oil lost 48 cents to $92.63/bbl.

China’s Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corp. has added to its considerable leasehold in the Mississippian Lime formation after agreeing to pay Chesapeake Energy Corp. $1.02 billion in cash for half of its 850,000 net acres.

Two polls show New Yorkers remain evenly split on the issue of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), but one poll shows opponents of the practice could cause more political damage to Gov. Andrew Cuomo if it ultimately is approved.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has added a high-tech laser scanning device to its safety tool box for its pipeline systems. EXAscan, which is produced by Creaform in Quebec, may be placed a few inches above a section of pipe to produce 3-D views. It is said to be accurate within 40 microns (0.0016 of an inch) to detect potential corrosion, dents or warping. PG&E is able to capture information electronically for an entire pipeline section within minutes, a spokesperson said.

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) added two newly elected members and one re-elected member Monday. Bob Stump, the recently re-elected member, was voted by his colleagues as the ACC’s new chairman. He is joined by new member Bob Burns and Susan Bitter Smith, along with returning members, Gary Pierce and Brenda Burns. Pierce just completed two years as the regulatory panel’s chair. Stump serves on the board of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. On Friday, the ACC also named a new executive director, Jodi Jerich, who comes to the commission from a three-year stint as head of the Arizona Residential Utility Consumer Office. Jerich formerly served as policy advisor to ACC commissioner Mike Gleason.

Accusing Tennessee Gas Pipeline of “improperly segmenting” its expansion projects to avoid rigorous environmental reviews, three environmental groups have filed an emergency motion asking FERC to expedite consideration of their request for the agency to rehear a May order approving the pipeline’s Northeast Upgrade Project.

Following a few reporting snafus in its biannual oil and natural gas production report released in August, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has added a click-through disclaimer notice on the Marcellus Shale production section of its website noting that the agency “expressly disclaims any liability for errors or omissions related to the production data” contained within the reports.