Allows

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed 29 bills into law on Tuesday, including SB 259, which the state’s chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) has derided as “a kissing cousin to forced pooling.”

In a stunning setback for shale development in New York state, an appellate court ruled unanimously to uphold two local bans on oil and gas activities.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) on Wednesday introduced an interactive website that allows users to examine information related to the collection and distribution of revenue from the state’s unconventional natural gas well impact fee, which was enacted as part of Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law.

A district court judge wants the highest court in West Virginia, the Supreme Court of Appeals, to certify whether existing state law allows a company to drill on land where it doesn’t own the surface rights, but it owns the underlying mineral rights.

Royal Dutch Shell plc hasn’t given any indication that it will back out of plans to build a world-scale petrochemical complex in Pennsylvania, but a developer working on a smaller project in the Northeast thinks bigger isn’t always better.

A decision by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to set aside its original federal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) proposal has drawn plaudits from associations representing major oil and natural gas producers.

A bill signed by President Obama Tuesday allows for the construction and operation of natural gas pipeline facilities in the New York portion of the Gateway National Recreation Center, a 26,600-acre National Recreation Area in the Port of New York and New Jersey. HR 2606, which was introduced last year by three congressman representing Brooklyn and Queens — Republicans Michael Grimm and Robert Turner, and Democrat Gregory Meeks — was approved by the House and Senate earlier this year. The legislation will allow a new pipeline to be built off of an existing Williams pipeline to replace a 40-60 year old pipe and bring natural gas from New Jersey to Long Island. The pipeline will pass under Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways portion of Queens and under Jamaica Bay to a new meter and regulator station on Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. The project would generate an estimated $265 million on construction activity and 300 construction jobs, according to Grimm.

Houston-based land driller Sidewinder Drilling Inc. management on Monday said it now holds about 92% of the outstanding shares of Union Drilling Inc., which allows the unconventional oilfield service operators to move forward with their merger, first announced in September.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has completed sales of its Permian Basin properties, which allows it to reduce the outstanding balance on existing term loans to $1.2 billion from $4 billion by the end of this month. The company said it plans to fully repay the term loans by the end of the year. The assets sold produced close to 21,000 b/d of liquids and 90 MMcf/d of natural gas in 2Q2012, or about 5.7% of Chesapeake’s production during the period. The multi-sales package was announced in September (see Shale Daily, Sept. 13). SWEPI LP, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, bought the southern Delaware Basin assets, while the northern Delaware Basin portion was sold to Chevron U.S.A. Inc., a subsidiary of Chevron Corp. The producing assets in the Midland Basin were sold to affiliates of Houston-based EnerVest Ltd.