Chesapeake

Two communities in suburban Pittsburgh voted against a proposal for their regional park authority to sign a five-year, non-surface lease with a land brokerage firm this week, effectively killing the deal.

MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources LLC has signed up units of Chesapeake Energy Corp. for additional midstream services in the Marcellus Shale in northern West Virginia, the partnership said Wednesday.

Southwestern Energy Co. will devote $1.9 billion to its capital investment program in 2011, down 10% compared with $2.1 billion in 2010, with most of it continuing to be spent on operations in the Fayetteville Shale where the Houston-based producer expects to see a significant increase in production.

A unit of Japan’s ITOCHU Corp. is to acquire a one-quarter interest in Niobrara oil shale acreage in southeastern Wyoming, marking the first time a Japanese company is participating in a U.S. oil shale project.

In a move that would create a $595 million combined energy company serving 200,000 customers in three states, Chesapeake Utilities Corp. (CPK) and Florida Public Utilities Co. (FPU) said Monday they have agreed to merge FPU with a CPK subsidiary.

Some of the largest independent producers in the United States — including Chesapeake Energy Corp., Devon Energy Corp. and Newfield Exploration Co. — have formed the American Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) with a “singular mission” — to increase the public’s “awareness and appreciation” of the abundant domestic gas supplies.

On the heels of Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s spending cutbacks over the next two years (see related story), Raymond James & Associates Inc. Monday once again cut its projected U.S. rig count, predicting a reduction of 41%, or 850, for 2009.

Oklahoma City-based GMX Resources Inc. Monday followed cross-town independent Chesapeake Energy Corp. in announcing plans to drastically reduce capital expenditures (capex) in 2009. The junior independent, considered a pure-play gas producer that has earned success in the emerging Haynesville Shale and Bossier Sands of Louisiana and East Texas, plans to cut its projected spending by 45%.

Just how prescient were the recent comments of Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon and T. Boone Pickens about increasing the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel? General Motors Corp. (GM) now is calling natural gas an “enticing alternative” to petroleum, and Honda Motor Co. has begun touting “Phill,” a home refueling appliance available to owners of natural gas vehicles (NGV).