Decided

The U.S. and Canadian rig count may recover a bit this year, but it still will be lower than it was in 2012, according to Schlumberger Ltd. CEO Paal Kibsgaard.

Despite a decided turn toward more winter-like weather in a number of regions of the United States on Monday, the expected decrease in natural gas demand tied to the Christmas Holiday proved to be enough to send nearly all pricing points lower, with a majority of the declines recorded across the country coming in at more than a dime.

The West Virginia Department of Revenue (DOR) has decided not to assign assessed value to oil and natural gas wellpad sites in the state, heeding the advice of a special committee of county assessors that doing so would pose a hardship to farmers who own surface, but not mineral, rights to their land.

Two municipalities in upstate New York have decided to remain neutral on the issue of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) and will wait until the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issues its report on the practice.

eCorp International LLC and a property owners organization in New York have decided to scrap a “complex” plan to create a company indirectly owned by the landowners and will return to the drawing board, delaying the possibility of bringing waterless hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to the Empire State.

Bogged down for more than two years at FERC on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import application, the backers of Oregon LNG have decided to join the growing list of proposed North American LNG export projects and turn their site at the mouth of the Columbia River into a bidirectional facility that concentrates of exporting western Canadian gas supplies to lucrative Asian market. They hope to have all their major federal filings made within weeks, Project Manager Peter Hansen told NGI on Tuesday.

Two separate decisions in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York came down mostly on the side of shale play giant Chesapeake Energy Corp. in a year-old dispute over the extension of leases from landowners at below-market prices. Landowners in parts of four counties in New York state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale filed lawsuits against the Oklahoma-based shale operator.

Bowing to pressure from customers, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) decided Monday to give in to individual customers who insist that they cannot tolerate — for health or other reasons — smart meters, recommending to state regulators that a proposed opt-out provision be expanded to include use of analog meters.

Seeking to coordinate more closely with other state stakeholders, Wyoming’s Office of State Lands and Investments decided to delay action on the state’s draft policy on natural gas flaring until January. That would put off action until the State Board of Lands Commissioners, which includes Gov. Matt Mead, meets next year.