Denver

Denver-based Whiting Petroleum Corp. officials said Friday they expected to greatly ramp up production in both the Bakken and Niobrara shale plays later this year as they reported production for the second quarter that was up substantially from the same period in 2012.

Denver-based Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp., which is focused on the Bakken Shale in North Dakota’s Williston Basin, grew oil and gas sales volumes by 83% during the second quarter compared to a year ago; crude oil accounted for 87% of second quarter sales. The company has raised capital spending and production guidance for the remainder of the year.

Elected officials in Fort Collins, CO, 60 miles north of Denver, on Tuesday rejected two proposals to extend the city’s oil/natural gas drilling moratorium, which is set to expire at the end of July. The measures were defeated on 4-3 votes of the seven-member city council.

Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. said Monday it will market its Texas Panhandle oil and gas assets after having received unsolicited interest in the properties. A deal could garner $1 billion or more and would be “transformative” for the company, one analyst said.

Denver-based Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. has completed its acquisition of 42,000 net acres and associated production in North Dakota’s Williston Basin for $660 million in cash from Liberty Resources LLC. The deal included core Bakken and Three Forks producing properties in addition to undeveloped leaseholds.

States are being shortchanged hundreds of millions of dollars by low-ball royalties for oil and natural gas development on federal lands, a report released Thursday by a Denver-based nonpartisan think tank says, based on an analysis of seven states.

A wildfire along the Western Slope in Colorado south of Rangely in the Piceance Basin prompted Denver-based Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. to close 500 conventional natural gas wells in Rio Blanco County and evacuate an eight-worker plant. The shutdown was expected to continue at least through Friday, a Colorado-based Encana spokesperson told NGI.

States are being shortchanged hundreds of millions of dollars by low-ball royalties for oil and natural gas development on federal lands, a report released Thursday by a Denver-based nonpartisan think tank says, based on an analysis of five western states, plus North Dakota and Texas.

Denver-based exploration and production (E&P) independent QEP Resources Inc. reported encouraging results from its first four-well pad drilling on recently acquired South Antelope property in the Williston Basin in North Dakota. QEP said it also completed nine wells — four in the Bakken and five in the Three Forks formations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.