Consent

George Phydias Mitchell, 94, who is credited with pioneering unconventional drilling techniques that have opened up North America’s natural gas and oil potential, died Friday at his home in Galveston, TX.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) on Friday revised its outlook for Chesapeake Energy Corp. to “stable” from “negative,” citing the new CEO as part of the reason. Former Anadarko Petroleum Corp. executive Doug Lawler took over in June (see NGI, May 27).

Baker Hughes Inc. is optimistic about North America for the second half of 2013, but sector leader Schlumberger Ltd. still expects an oversupplied pressure pumping market.

Rates for offshore rigs improved and the amount of downtime fell between April and June, helping to buoy offshore drilling contractor Noble Corp. to higher-than-expected profits.

Output from the nation’s shale plays has ballooned domestic natural gas production over the past few years, but the industry, and the country, have yet to fully embrace all that the paradigm shift entails, said Rick Smead, a director in Navigant Consulting Inc.’s energy practice.

Wells Fargo Securities analysts last week increased their outlook for natural gas prices to reflect 2Q2013 average pricing. They also expect to see “slightly increasing” gas output as badly needed infrastructure in the Marcellus, Utica and Eagle Ford shales comes online.

Pro-business Washington, DC, think tank American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) has a new paper extolling the benefits of exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) that it hopes will light a fire under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its export approval process.

The Senate Thursday confirmed Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ending a four-month long stalemate between Republicans and Democrats over her controversial nomination.

Apache Corp., which had planned to sell about $4 billion worth of assets by the end of the year, accomplished that goal and more last week after agreeing to sell Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Outer Continental Shelf operations and properties, and the asset retirement obligations, to a Riverstone Holdings affiliate for $5.25 billion total.