Covering

National Grid US named John Donleavy chief operating officer covering natural gas and electric utility operations in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to National Grid US President Tom King. Donleavy is the former CEO of Vermont Electric Co. King credited Donleavy with leading an enterprise-wide business process transformation and the largest capital infrastructure construction program in the company’s and Vermont’s history. Reporting to King, Donleavy will oversee all aspects of National Grid’s operations in the United States, including gas and power transmission/distribution systems, generation, liquefied natural gas control center operations, emergency planning and a variety of operating, safety and environmental programs.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said natural gas production in Pennsylvania increased 69% in 2012, despite a reduction in drilling activity.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. and privately held Eclipse Resources I LP have struck a joint operating agreement covering a leasehold owned by both companies in the Marcellus and Utica shales in Monroe County, OH.

Range Resources Corp.’s planned five-rig drilling program for 2013 in the Mississippian Lime, which was scheduled to start up early next year, already is under way based on encouraging results from a crop of wells in the Nemaha Ridge area, the company said Thursday.

The government of Poland plans to issue draft rules covering shale gas extraction within a week, the next step to help the country take advantage of what may be vast quantities of natural gas, authorities said Tuesday.

Quicksilver Resources Inc. has executed an agreement with the U.S. exploration arm of Royal Dutch Shell plc to establish an area of mutual interest (AMI) covering more than 850,000 acres of the Sand Wash Basin in northwestern Colorado.

Quicksilver Resources Inc. has executed an agreement with the U.S. exploration arm of Royal Dutch Shell plc to establish an area of mutual interest (AMI) covering more than 850,000 acres of the Sand Wash Basin in northwestern Colorado.

Agreements carved out by the small Front Range Colorado town of Erie have added to the state’s rules covering hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and could serve as a model for other local jurisdictions. The state, however, maintains the exclusive right of enforcement.

Dallas-based Mesa Energy Holdings Inc. has leased 1,525 net acres in Garfield and Major counties, OK, and has closed on a farmout agreement with Twenty/Twenty Oil & Gas Inc. covering 1,720 net acres that are held by production.