Both

As had been expected, the acquisition of Australia’s Eureka Energy Ltd. by Aurora Oil & Gas Ltd. is to be completed, Aurora said in a letter to Eureka shareholders. Both companies have acreage in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas. Eureka has three core assets with a combined net acreage position of 6,742 acres, all focused on the Eagle Ford, according to the Australian company’s website. “The assets are at different levels of maturity throughout the value chain, from ongoing production and development, appraisal and development to initial technical development,” the company said. Aurora participates in multiple separate joint ventures that form a contiguous land position totaling 76,989 acres that sit at the heart of the Eagle Ford, according to the company (see Shale Daily, July 3; May 1).

In a decision in which both sides are claiming victories of sorts, a federal district judge in Denver on June 22 ordered the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to review and revise its drilling plan for the Roan Plateau in western Colorado where one operator has plans to drill thousands of natural gas wells.

In a decision in which both sides are claiming victories of sorts, a federal district judge in Denver on Friday ordered the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to review and revise its drilling plan for the Roan Plateau in western Colorado where one operator has plans to drill thousands of natural gas wells.

With an eye for the developing shale potential in Kansas, Irvine, CA-based startup New Western Energy Corp. said Wednesday it has obtained a 90% working interest in the 550-acre Smith Oil & Gas Lease in Chautauqua County, KS. The interest is in acreage that sits adjacent to 1,700 acres that New Western holds in the B&W Oil & Gas Lease.

British Columbia (BC) natural gas supplies in both proposed export terminals and burgeoning shale plays hold out the potential for substantial power demand growth over the next 20 years, according to a draft 2012 integrated resource plan (IRP) by BC Hydro. Along with mining, natural gas carries the potential for “very substantial demand growth,” the BC provincial utility officials said.

A private firm hired by Chesapeake Energy Corp. has determined that drinking water sources tested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Bradford County, PA, show no signs of any adverse impact from Marcellus Shale operations.

MDU Resources Group Inc., which has five rigs in operation in the Bakken Shale and holds 124,000 net leasehold acres in the play, said subsidiary Bitter Creek Pipelines LLC has paid $66 million for a 50% interest in Whiting Oil and Gas Corp.’s natural gas and oil midstream assets near Belfield, ND.

Banking on the possibility that New York will lift its moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the near future, Norse Energy Corp. ASA on Thursday completed a $37 million sale of operated production and other assets in the Empire State to EmKey Resources LLC (see Shale Daily, March 19), giving it cash to focus on core properties in the Marcellus and Utica shales in central New York.

A legislative panel in Ohio has cleared four rules proposed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), which include new requirements for the permitting and construction of oil and natural gas wells and rules governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking).