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Petrohawk Energy Corp. will reduce its 2009 capital budget by 33% and is considering the divestiture of certain conventional assets in the Permian Basin region next year, the company said Wednesday.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne last Monday proposed relaxing the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) to allow federal agencies in certain narrowly defined situations to decide on their own whether projects would threaten endangered species and plants. The move is aimed at reducing the workload by limiting “unnecessary consultations” among agencies over actions likely to have minimal impact.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne Monday proposed relaxing the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) to allow federal agencies in certain narrowly defined situations to decide on their own whether projects would threaten endangered species and plants. The move is aimed at reducing the workload by limiting “unnecessary consultations” among agencies over actions likely to have minimal impact.

Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has signaled that he would be open to allowing drilling off certain coastal states as part of a larger compromise on energy policy, a shift in his position against repeal of the congressional ban on oil and natural gas activity in much of the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Williams has completed the purchase of certain interests in Colorado’s Piceance Basin for approximately $285 million in cash from Oklahoma City, OK-based independent producer SandRidge Energy and other parties. The assets represent more than 1.9 Tcfe of probable and possible reserves on approximately 32,500 gross acres and 24,000 net acres, according to Williams. The transaction will boost Williams’ probable and possible reserves in the basin by more than 42% to 6.4 Tcfe, based on Williams year-end 2007 estimates. Williams noted that it also had 2.8 Tcfe of proved reserves at year-end 2007 in the Piceance Basin. The deal was announced earlier this month (see Daily GPI, May 9).

It’s going on seven years since the bankruptcy of a certain Houston-based energy trading giant, and natural gas marketers have remained true to their renewed faith in physical assets: pipelines and storage. But that’s not to say gas marketing is a sleepy business of merely pushing molecules through pipes and counting dollars.

It’s going on seven years since the bankruptcy of a certain Houston-based energy trading giant, and natural gas marketers have remained true to their renewed faith in physical assets: pipelines and storage. But that’s not to say gas marketing is a sleepy business of merely pushing molecules through pipes and counting dollars.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, Friday upheld FERC’s decision rejecting Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) request to roll in certain costs associated with a Southeast expansion that went into service in late 1998.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, Friday upheld FERC’s decision rejecting Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) request to roll in certain costs associated with a Southeast expansion that went into service in late 1998.