Costs

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is once again fighting to stave off a class action lawsuit in Pennsylvania as it confronts a growing chorus of those that allege it is improperly deducting post-production costs from royalty payments.

For every natural gas well in Pennsylvania targeting the Marcellus Shale, the heavy truck traffic it requires could be causing up to $23,000 in damage to state roadways, according to a study commissioned by the Rand Corp. and conducted in part by Carnegie Mellon University.

North America’s energy renaissance is going full tilt, but it could be shackled by a lack of personnel, more stringent regulations and even geology, IHS CERAWeek executives said in Houston last week.

An estimated $153.7 billion was spent on oil and natural gas drilling in the United States in 2012, up 23.1% from 2011, according to a new report issued by the American Petroleum Institute (API). Significantly, it revealed that spending on shale drilling fell during the period.

The costs to build and operate upstream oil and natural gas facilities have seen limited growth this year, with labor costs still escalating but the price of some drilling products nearly flat, according to IHS Inc.

A number of natural gas utilities across the United States have asked state regulators for a decrease in their rates as the winter heating season approaches, citing an oversupply of gas from shale gas development.

In the midst of mostly stable U.S. natural gas prices and a steady boom in domestic supplies, utility gas hedging programs have come under increasing scrutiny, with regulators and consumer advocates questioning the overall costs of hedging in recent years.

Thanks to the Marcellus Shale, Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. recently completed the best quarter in its history on an operational and financial basis. The company is adding a sixth rig in the play as it anticipates multiple infrastructure projects to come online in the months ahead, increasing the ability to get its gas to markets.

Driven by the Bakken Shale play, North Dakota’s oil and natural gas production continued to soar in May, but well completion rates were slowing amid a continued boom for drilling new wells, according to the latest monthly report from the state’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).