Announced

Located three counties due north of the wet gas window of the Marcellus Shale, and over a state line from expanding development in the Utica Shale, Mercer County, PA, nevertheless appears poised to benefit from development of both plays in the near future.

During its second fiscal quarter, which ended Feb. 28, Platteville, CO-based independent Synergy Resources Corp. continued its 100% success rate in the Wattenberg Field in the Denver-Julesberg (DJ) Basin. Synergy recently struck a joint venture (JV) agreement in the DJ Basin as well.

ExxonMobil Corp. last week announced plans to invest close to $190 billion over the next five years to more than double exploration acreage in proven and emerging oil-rich areas to boost underperforming output and earnings. The amount comes to about $38 billion of upstream spending a year, or about $1 billion more than ExxonMobil spent in 2012 and a new record for the company.

Eagle Rock Energy Partners LP and Apache Corp. have struck a new fee-based gas gathering, processing and purchasing agreement in support of Apache’s drilling in the Texas Panhandle. Apache has dedicated all existing and future wells drilled within an area encompassing more than 106,000 gross acres in Hemphill, Lipscomb, Ochiltree, Roberts, Hansford and Sherman counties under market-based terms. The agreement supersedes and expands on previous agreements between Eagle Rock and Apache. The dedicated acreage covers the Granite Wash, Hogshooter, Tonkawa, Marmaton and Cleveland plays in the Anadarko Basin. The associated Apache production will be gathered and processed at one or more of the partnership’s cryogenic processing plants in the Panhandle. Eagle Rock’s Panhandle assets consist of 6,500 miles of gathering pipeline and more than 480 MMcf/d of processing capacity, with an additional 60 MMcf/d of processing capacity expected to come online in the second quarter.

ExxonMobil Corp. on Wednesday announced plans to invest close to $190 billion over the next five years to more than double exploration acreage in proven and emerging oil-rich areas to boost underperforming output and earnings.

Hoping to head off threats of a state moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Illinois state legislative, oil/natural gas industry and environmental leaders on Thursday announced agreement on a bipartisan bill (HB 2615) establishing rules on the use of the contested well stimulation practice.

The $4.3 billion tie-up of Linn Energy LLC and its LinnCo LLC unit with Berry Petroleum Co., announced Thursday, will create one of the largest exploration and production (E&P) companies in North America. The deal also is said to be the first-ever acquisition of a C-corporation by an upstream limited liability company (LLC) or master limited partnership (MLP).

The $4.3 billion tie-up of Linn Energy LLC and its LinnCo LLC unit with Berry Petroleum Co., announced Thursday, will create one of the largest exploration and production (E&P) companies in North America. The deal also is said to be the first-ever acquisition of a C-corporation by an upstream limited liability company (LLC) or master limited partnership (MLP).

Santa Fe Petroleum Inc. announced Thursday that it had acquired additional leased acres in North Central Texas for oil and natural gas drilling, expanding its position in the Barnett Shale.