Devonian

Nearly a year after the company said it would suspend its Upper Devonian Shale drilling in favor of the deep, dry Utica, EQT Corp. is reviving the program, with management saying on Thursday that it’s a “use it or lose it play.”

As the majors and other large oil and gas companies deploy up and down the Marcellus and Utica shales, a handful of smaller companies are targeting shallower formations like the Upper Devonian Shale, using hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at less expensive wells to achieve their own measure of success.

The Allegheny County Airport Authority (ACAA), which runs Pittsburgh International Airport and Allegheny County Airport, has accepted the lower of two bids it received to drill Marcellus Shale natural gas wells on airport property.

Consol Energy Inc. and EQT Corp. were the only companies to submit bids for leases to drill for natural gas on 9,263 acres at Pittsburgh International Airport and Allegheny County Airport just outside of the city, according to the Allegheny County Airport Authority (ACAA).

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. posted a 51% increase in estimated total proved reserves as of June 30 compared to the year-ago period, the shale-focused producer said.

Thomas S. Liberatore has joined Eclipse Resources as a partner, executive vice president and COO, the State College, PA-based oil and gas company said. Liberatore, who resigned as vice president of Cabot Oil & Gas Corp.’s East region following a restructuring there two years ago (see Daily GPI, June 1, 2009), is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Appalachian Geological Society, has served on the board of directors of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association and is a past president of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia. Additionally, Brian Panetta, who was previously a geologist with Waco Oil & Gas and a senior geologist for Chesapeake Energy Corp., has joined Eclipse as vice president of geology. Eclipse focuses on the acquisition, exploration and development of unconventional oil and natural gas properties in the Appalachian Basin, including the Marcellus Shale, Utica Shale and Upper Devonian shales.

Indigo-Energy Inc., a junior explorer that focuses on prospects located in the Upper Devonian sand formations of Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, plans to spend $686.4 million to develop about 135,000 acres in the Illinois Basin, an emerging natural gas play that straddles portions of southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky. The Illinois Basin covers about 60,000 square miles. Indigo, based in Henderson, NV, obtained the funds through a loan agreement with BJ Petro Inc., a Nevada corporation. Indigo also won mineral rights in Greene County, PA, and in Monongalia County, WV.

EnCana Corp. has completed a major land acquisition program along the Devonian Jean Marie reef margin in the Greater Sierra region in northeast British Columbia. With the acquisition, the company now holds more than 2 million net acres of land on the Greater Sierra play, which is one of the fastest growing gas producing regions in North America. In total, the company estimated that it has spent C$100 million (US$65-70 million) on the acquisitions.