Coalition

The American Petroleum Institute (API) and a coalition of business groups last week appeared before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to challenge the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) implementation of Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, which requires companies registered with the agency to publicly report how much they pay governments for access to oil, natural gas and other minerals.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) and a coalition of business groups appeared before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Monday to challenge the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) implementation of Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, which requires companies registered with the agency to publicly report how much they pay governments for access to oil, natural gas and minerals.

A diverse coalition of often opposing forces has launched a center to provide producers with certification of performance standards for shale development and established the first 15 standards designed to ensure safe and environmentally responsible development of the Appalachian Basin’s shale gas resources.

A diverse coalition of often opposing forces Wednesday launched a center to provide producers with certification of performance standards for shale development and established the first 15 standards designed to ensure safe and environmentally responsible development of the Appalachian Basin’s shale gas resources.

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).

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) announced this week that Chesapeake Energy Corp. vice president of government affairs Dave Spigelmyer has been re-elected as the organization’s chair. Randy Albert (COO, Gas Operations, CONSOL Energy), Scott Roy (vice president, Government and Regulatory Affairs, Range Resources Corp.) and John Mollenkopf (senior vice president and COO, MarkWest Energy Partners) were re-elected as vice chair, treasurer and secretary, respectively. The 2013 executive board members are: Dave Cannon, deputy general counsel, Government and Environmental Affairs, EQT Corp.; Jeff Kupfer, senior advisor, Policy and Government Affairs, Chevron; Heather Lamparter, vice president, Legal, EXCO Resources (PA), LLC; Craig Mayer, general counsel, Pennsylvania General Energy; Gary Smith, vice president and general manager, EOG Resources; and Jack Williams, president, XTO Energy. John Bonn, president of NiSource Midstream Services, NiSource Gas Transmission & Storage, and Terry Bossert, senior vice president, Environment & Regulatory Affairs, Chief Oil & Gas, were elected by their peers to serve as at-large members of the Executive Board. Formed three years ago as an organization tasked with addressing issues regarding the production of natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays, the MSC has grown to a diverse, member-driven organization representing virtually every business segment along the robust shale supply chain in the region.

A coalition of 14 environmental groups has asked Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett to reverse a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) policy that requires field offices to advise senior DEP officials of their intent to acknowledge water contamination related to Marcellus Shale gas well operations before notification letters are sent to potentially affected homeowners.

The industry-led Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) has canceled a study underway by Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) about natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking), following criticism that previous research had a pro-drilling slant.

A kerfuffle between the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) and an anti-drilling group over copyright infringement has resulted in the latter removing from its website a logo similar to the one used by the MSC.