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The Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH), which was created to referee contested cases, will hold a hearing July 12 in Gainesville, TX, on EOG Resources Inc.’s application for an air permit to build a plant to process sand to be used primarily to hydraulically fracture (frack) oil and natural gas wells.

With the clock running out on an A45 cents/share takeover offer from Aurora Oil & Gas Ltd., directors of Eureka Energy, are being coy, advising investors to sit tight until its June 15 expiration “as there is the potential for important developments.” Indeed, it was reported that privately held Lonestar Resources Inc. had made a competing offer that would be considered over the weekend.

FERC on Tuesday issued a certificate for Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Northeast Upgrade Project, which would expand the company’s existing 300 Line system in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to provide an additional 636,000 Dth/d of Marcellus Shale gas to Northeast markets. This comes only months after Tennessee placed into service an initial expansion and upgrade of the 300 Line.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. shareholders are being urged by the manager of a group of New York City pension funds to vote against the only two board members up for reelection this year for failing to monitor financial activities of CEO Aubrey McClendon.

More than 70% of the offshore acres under lease to oil and natural gas producers are inactive, while 56% of onshore leases on public lands are not being used, according to an updated report from the Department of Interior. Producers quickly responded by accusing the Obama administration of using them as a “scapegoat” for its failed energy policies.

Copano Energy LLC plans to add an additional 400 MMcf/d of cryogenic processing capacity at its Houston Central complex in Colorado County, TX, to meet demand from producers in the liquids rich Eagle Ford Shale. The expansion would bring Copano’s cryogenic capacity at the facility to 1 Bcf/d. The project is expected to cost $190 million and be in service mid-2014. Copano also announced a new long-term fee-based gathering and processing agreement with a “major” Eagle Ford producer, which combined with previously announced producer commitments, will support the expansion. Copano had previously announced plans for an initial 400 MMcf/d cryogenic processing expansion at Houston Central, which is expected to be in service during the first quarter of 2013 (see Shale Daily, April 21, 2011). “This second cryogenic expansion project reaffirms our commitment to being a leading midstream service provider in the Eagle Ford shale,” said CEO R. Bruce Northcutt.

Eagle Ford operator Paloma Partners II LLC revealed on Wednesday that it is being taken over by Marathon Oil Corp. for $750 million in cash.

Amid forecasts that see no end to low gas prices across North America, overseas exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are being rated as a must for development of the Canadian version of shale supplies in northern British Columbia (BC).

A two-phase approach to the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries should result in a new line from Oklahoma to the Gulf being in place sometime next year, with the XL phase from Canada to Nebraska following by early 2015, the CEO of the project’s sponsor, TransCanada Corp., said Friday. The latter is the only part of the project now requiring a federal Presidential Permit from the U.S. State Department.