Denver

Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. is spinning off its natural gas-weighted operations in Canada by selling one-fifth of its Lone Pine Resources unit for up to $375 million in shares through an initial public offering (IPO).

Denver-based Antero Resources, which has begun to expand its holdings in the Marcellus Shale, said Thursday it has acquired privately held Bluestone Energy Partners, an Appalachian natural gas producer.

State gas commission hearings on Denver-based Antero Resources’ plan to increase the density of its horizontal drilling in Colorado’s Garfield County near the Piceance Basin have been delayed from late this month to mid-January next year. A prehearing conference to decide procedural matters will still be held Tuesday.

For the second time in four months, Broome County, NY, legislators have voted against an application from Denver-based Inflection Energy to lease acreage for natural gas drilling. In a 10-3 vote late Thursday, the county’s legislature killed an Inflection proposal to pay the county $2,250-2,750/acre to lease 3,200 acres for five years for gas drilling. A previous proposal, which would have paid $3,000/acre for 5,500 acres, was withdrawn by County Executive Barbara Fiala this summer after the legislature said it would not approve the plan. Inflection had removed from its proposal some Marcellus Shale acreage that includes county parkland or acreage adjacent to parkland. Both proposals offered a 20% royalty. A de facto moratorium on drilling in the state, which was put in place two years ago, remains in effect while the Department of Environmental Conservation reviews its permitting regulations (see Shale Daily, Oct. 13).

Shale plays figured prominently in the third quarter performance of Denver-based QEP Resources as the company grew production by about 20% from the year-ago period.

Denver-based independent SM Energy Co. said Monday it planned to raise “at least $300-500 million” by selling nonstrategic assets or through joint venture (JV) agreements over the next year.

Western Gas Partners LP is buying the Wattenberg gathering system and related assets in the Denver-Julesberg Basin of northeastern Colorado from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for consideration of $498 million, the partnership said last week, noting that the acquisition gives it an opportunity to serve liquids-rich gas production in the basin.

Western Gas Partners LP is buying the Wattenberg gathering system and related assets in the Denver-Julesberg Basin of northeastern Colorado from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for consideration of $498 million, the partnership said Monday, noting that the acquisition gives it an opportunity to serve liquids-rich gas production in the basin.

Natural gas industry groups in Denver last week urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to limit the scope of a federal study on the effects of hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracing).