Board

Quicksilver Resources Inc. found a silver lining in the recent decision by Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) to reject TransCanada Corp.’s Komie North Extension pipeline project in the Horn River Basin.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead submitted his slate of agency, board and commission appointments to his state Senate, including 10 that impact the energy sector. Mead reappointed Todd Parfitt as head of the state Department of Environmental Quality and Bill Russell as one of the three-member Public Service Commission (PSC), along with adding a new PSC nominee, Kara Brighton. For the 12-member Energy Resource Council at the University of Wyoming, he reappointed Carl Bauer, a private-sector consultant; resubmitted two earlier appointments from last year, Martha Wyrsch from Vestas American Wind; and Jeane Hull from Peabody Energy; and added two industry representatives, Tom Botts, a retired Shell Oil executive, and David Emery, CEO at Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. Among the other agency/commission appointments are Mark Doelger to the Oil/Gas Commission, and Bill Hawks who was reappointed to the Wyoming Pipeline Authority. The state Senate has five days to approve or reject the appointments.

EOG Resources Inc. said it now holds 2.2 billion boe of potential recoverable crude oil reserves in the Eagle Ford Shale — reportedly the largest share net to one company in the last 40 years — and plans to continue focusing on oil production in 2013, after posting large increases in oil, condensate and natural gas liquids (NGL) production the year before.

While California state officials are mulling new regulations related to oil and natural gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a Stanford-connected engineering researcher/consultant has completed an updated analysis on some earlier work cautioning that fracking can induce seismic activity in geologically active areas, such as some of California’s old producing fields.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) announced leadership of its committees and subcommittees for 2013 as elected by the MSC board of directors. Committee chairs announced by MSC are Range Resources’ Bill Burket (health and safety); Seneca Resources’ Mike Donovan (land affairs); Pennsylvania General Energy’s Craig Mayer (legal committee); MarkWest Energy Partners’ Dave Callahan (legislative committee); EOG Resources’ Gary Smith (membership committee); MarkWest’s Rob McHale (midstream/pipeline committee); Chesapeake Energy’s Will Freeman (natural gas use); XTO Energy’s Karen Matusic (public relations); Chief Oil & Gas’s Terry Bossert (regulatory); Chevron’s Alan Abel (research collaborative); Consol Energy’s Ryan Litwinovich (supply chain); Southwestern’s Jennifer Stewart (tax and fee); Range’s Joe Frantz (technical); Cabot Oil & Gas’s John Smelko (environmental stewardship); WPX Energy’s Charles McCandless (transportation); and Atlas Energy’s Viola Lazzer (workforce).

Marc Rowland, who was CFO of Chesapeake Energy Corp. before leaving to run onshore oilfield services company FTS International Inc., has been elected to the board of Warren Resources Inc. Warren, based in New York City, is an onshore domestic producer with a portfolio of assets in California, Wyoming and the Niobrara formation. Rowland had worked at Chesapeake for 18 years and served as CFO from 1993 to August 2010. He became president of FTS predecessor company Frac Tech in October 2010, three months before the company filed an initial public offering (see Daily GPI, Sept. 20, 2011). Rowland was named CEO in May 2011 and held that position until November.

Gulfport Energy Corp. said Monday it has agreed to buy 30,000 net acres in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio for approximately $300 million, a transaction that would boost the company’s position in the play to about 137,000 gross acres (99,000 net).

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it plans to investigate this week why no alarms went off when a 20-inch diameter Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline exploded Tuesday near the rural community of Sissonville, WV.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it will begin packing up the section of the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline that was damaged in the Tuesday blast in West Virginia for it to be sent to its headquarters in Washington, DC, for closer scrutiny.