Businesses

Public opinion of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) among voters in New York State has shifted in favor of the practice, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday.

Agreements between two oil and gas producers and a small Front Range Colorado town have added to the state’s rules covering hydraulic fracturing and depend solely on the state for enforcement. Memoranda of understanding (MOU) inked separately by Encana Oil & Gas Co. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. with the city of Erie, CO, include several best management practices mutually agreed to with city officials and incorporated into state permitting requirements for new wells.

China’s CNOOC Ltd. plans to buy Canada’s Nexen Inc. for US$27.50/share (about $15.1 billion) in cash in a deal to expand CNOOC’s overseas businesses and resource base and increase the capital available for development of Nexen assets, the companies said Monday.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said $18 million in grants is available to businesses, governmental entities, school districts and individuals that replace older medium- or heavy-duty gasoline or diesel vehicles with natural gas vehicles (NGV) or repower the older vehicles with natural gas engines. Applicants must apply for Texas Natural Gas Vehicle Grant Program grants through a participating dealer. A list of participating dealers is available at www.terpgrants.org. The predetermined grant amounts are 60-90% of the incremental cost of the NGVs and engines, and are based on the fuel capacity, usage and weight class of the grant-funded vehicles. Grant applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Projects must result in at least a 25% reduction of emissions of nitrogen oxides, and grant recipients must commit to operate the grant-funded vehicles in eligible Texas counties for at least 75% of the annual mileage for four years, or 400,000 miles, whichever occurs earlier. Applications will be accepted until May 31, 2013 or until all funds are awarded. For information call (800) 919-TERP (8377).

Wyoming Oil and Gas Supervisor Tom Doll suddenly resigned Thursday, Gov. Matt Mead’s office announced late in the day. The resignation came a little more than a week after Doll publicly lambasted the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its handling of the well water and natural gas drilling case near Pavillion, WY, that has evolved into lingering state-federal issue.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Friday agreed to sell its midstream businesses to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in three separate transactions for more than $4 billion in cash. Chesapeake would net about $2.4 billion and cut previously budgeted midstream capital spending over the next three years by $3 billion.

Setting aside low natural gas prices and unseasonably warm weather in the first quarter, Bismarck, ND-based MDU Resources Group Inc. is riding the continuing Bakken Shale boom in its home state, growing its oil production 19% for the first three months of this year and increasing its working rig count from two to 10 for its exploration and production (E&P) unit over the most recent quarter-over-quarter period.

BP plc executives are hopeful that they can complete “in a few days” the $7.8 billion settlement tentatively reached last month with thousands of individuals and businesses that were impacted by the April 2010 Macondo well blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM), Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Thursday at the company’s annual meeting.

A state official said a bill advancing in the Pennsylvania General Assembly that offers tax breaks to large businesses could also be used to help the state lure an ethane cracker and the thousands of jobs it would provide.