Denver

Denver-based Petroleum Development Corp. (PDC) has agreed to sell its Permian Basin assets and intends next year to focus on the Wattenberg Field in Colorado, the Marcellus Shale in West Virginia and the Utica Shale in Ohio.

In the coming year Denver-based QEP Resources Inc. and its QEP Energy exploration and production (E&P) unit will spend within earnings and manage production with an eye on prices, CEO Charles Stanley told financial analysts during a meeting Monday. Spending will focus on higher-return oily assets at the expense of natural gas plays.

Shares of Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. took a nosedive on Tuesday, allegedly over concerns that the Denver-based independent energy company may be facing liquidity concerns.

As the federal fiscal year comes to a close Friday, oil and gas leasing activity in the Rockies states declined markedly, according to the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance (WEA), a trade association for more than 400 exploration and production (E&P) companies. With the exception of North Dakota, all Rockies states leasing activity has declined since 2008, WEA said.

In a landmark maneuver Thursday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a list of proposed standards to reduce air pollution from oil and natural gas drilling operations, with particular attention paid to shale development operations, which include hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking).

SM Energy Co. and a unit of Japan’s Mitsui & Co. Ltd. have struck a drilling carry agreement in the Eagle Ford Shale that is worth $680 million to the Denver-based producer and is part of its sell-down in the South Texas play. Mitsui, which already has a Marcellus Shale stake, recently announced a deal in Poland, where it said it plans to apply shale lessons learned in the United States.

Denver-based Inflection Energy has leased 3,000 additional acres in Broome County, NY, in the midst of the Marcellus Shale, bringing the total under its control in the state to approximately 15,000 acres. The county is located on the border with Pennsylvania, where the privately held exploration and production company holds more than 6,000 acres.

Triangle Petroleum Corp. said it has acquired about 42,000 net acres prospective for the Bakken and Three Forks formations in the Williston Basin, bringing its total net acreage position in the Williston Basin to 72,000 net acres and bring its net operated acres to 51,000.

Buoyed by a new gas processing plant and 10 Marcellus Shale wells drilled in the first quarter, Rex Energy Corp. is increasing its capital budget by $26.7 million for the year to support increased drilling activities.