Disputed

Endeavour International Corp. said it plans to spend 2012 focusing on developing its offshore oil assets and ramping up production in the North Sea while it waits to see the results from tight oil test wells drilled into the Heath Shale play in Montana.

The disputed dollar impacts are sufficiently large and the deficit reduction talks equally intense so a full range of federal energy subsidies need to be debated by Congress and others, according to a white paper issued recently by the Washington DC-based Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) which generally supports renewable energy.

Republican candidate Joe Miller took his challenge of the outcome of Alaska’s disputed U.S. Senate race to the state Supreme Court Friday. He is asking the state’s highest court to overturn a decision by a Superior Court judge that was favorable to write-in candidate and incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

Responding to Cabot Oil & Gas Corp.’s “public relations” announcement a day earlier, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary John Hanger on Wednesday said he would continue to hold the company responsible for groundwater contamination in Dimock Township, PA.

Only four drinking water wells in Dimock Township, PA, have methane exceeding the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) suggested action levels, according to data released Tuesday by Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., which said the study is further evidence that its natural gas drilling operations did not contaminate groundwater in the area.

A special Bureau of Land Management (BLM) report issued Thursday had some glum news for producers. It recommended that only 22% of 77 disputed oil and natural gas parcels in northeastern Utah be reissued, and that the department make significant reforms of its onshore and offshore leasing process, which could put more public land out of the reach of producers.

A special Bureau of Land Management (BLM) report issued last Thursday had some glum news for producers. It recommended that only 22% of 77 disputed oil and natural gas parcels in northeastern Utah be reissued, and that the department make significant reforms of its onshore and offshore leasing process, which could put more public land out of the reach of producers.

A report issued by the Interior Department last Thursday calls for an expeditious review of the disputed 77 parcels in Utah, which were auctioned in December and then later withdrawn, to determine whether they should be reoffered to producers for oil and natural gas development. It recommends that reinstatement of certain leases may be appropriate following the review.

In a deal exchanging disputed oil/gas properties for cash, Calpine Corp. late Wednesday said it had settled its remaining differences with Rosetta Resources Inc., its spinoff to which it sold the bulk of its oil and natural gas properties in the summer of 2005 (see Daily GPI, June 30, 2005). As part of the settlement, Calpine gets a $97 million payment and Rosetta obtains “certain residual oil and gas properties” and a 10-year supply pact from Calpine.