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ConocoPhillips, the largest operator in the San Juan Basin, is temporarily suspending its natural gas drilling in the Four Corners region because of low gas prices, a spokesman said Thursday. The news comes on the heels of reports by energy analysts that the gas rig count may only reach 450 this year and not strengthen into 2014.

Oilfield services activity in North America’s onshore and offshore from January through March is lower than Schlumberger Ltd. anticipated, according to CEO Paal Kibsgaard, who spoke Tuesday at the Howard Weil 41st Annual Energy Conference in New Orleans.

CenterPoint Energy Inc., OGE Energy Corp. and ArcLight Capital Partners are forming a new midstream master limited partnership (MLP) that will start off with 8,400 miles of interstate and 2,300 miles of intrastate pipelines in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana, plus some other assets.

House Republicans Tuesday called for greater access to oil and natural gas resources on public lands, restrictions on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority over the energy industry and for Congress to revisit flawed financial reform regulations in the Dodd-Frank Law.

North American oil and natural gas producers are in the “middle to latter stages of the land grab” for unconventional properties, but there still will be opportunities down the road for others to pitch a claim, said Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Inc.’s (TPH) Bobby Tudor.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has entered into a $860 million carried-interest arrangement with an undisclosed party for a 12.7% stake in the prospective Heidelberg development project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The arrangement represents nearly all its expected capital requirements through the anticipated date of first ramp-up in mid-2016. The agreement is similar in scope to one secured in 2012 with Inpex Corp. for a 7.2% stake in the Lucius deepwater development, which Anadarko is developing jointly with Heidelberg (see NGI, Aug. 27, 2012). Two truss spars each would have capacity of 80,000 b/d; Lucius is on schedule to achieve first production in 2014.

The Continental Divide-Creston gas drilling project, which would be the largest in Wyoming, could add nearly 9,000 new wells on more than 6,100 well pads in Carbon and Sweetwater counties, creating thousands of jobs, but it needs to be done right, said Gov. Matt Mead.

Natural gas production from unconventional sources in Pennsylvania hit a record 2.04 Tcf in 2012, as the state’s Marcellus/Utica shale gas for the first time edged ahead of the granddaddy Barnett Shale in Texas.

Hess Corp. on Monday marked the culmination of its multi-year strategic makeover into becoming a pure-play exploration and production (E&P) company. The company is “fully exiting” the downstream and selling its retail, energy marketing and energy trading businesses. It also plans to install six new independent directors.