District

Anchor Drilling Fluids USA Inc. announced Monday that it has opened a drilling fluids production plant in Wellsville, OH, the first such facility in the state and designed to service oil and natural gas operators in the emerging Marcellus and Utica shales.

ATP Oil & Gas Corp. on Friday said it has filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas “to undertake a comprehensive financial restructuring.”

Early indications point to natural gas development having a positive impact on state tax collections in counties in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale region, according to an analysis by Pennsylvania State University researchers.

Pennsylvania’s potential adoption of a statewide impact fee on natural gas wells is poised to take another large step forward Wednesday (Oct. 26) when the state’s Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote on Senate Bill (SB) 1100.

A proposed rule in Texas to require public disclosure of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluid contents was approved for publication Monday by the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC).

Although Norse Energy Corp. ASA has applied for a permit to drill an unconventional gas well in New York’s portion of the Marcellus Shale, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said the company’s application is premature.

A federal judge has sentenced Tim DeChristopher, 29, to two years in prison for disrupting a Bureau of Land Management lease auction in Utah in December 2008. U.S. District Judge Dee Benson also fined DeChristopher $10,000 and gave him three years of probation. In March a jury found the Universithy of Utah economics student guilty of one count of violating the federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act and two counts of providing false statements. DeChristopher falsely bid on 13 lease parcels covering 22,000 acres near Utah’s Arches and Canyonlands national parks on Dec. 19, 2008 (see NGI, Jan. 5, 2009). He reportedly disrupted the auction over climate change concerns.

ExxonMobil Corp. is declaring force majeure on its leases in New York, citing ongoing permitting delays.

A federal judge in Wyoming Thursday ordered the U.S. Interior Department to decide on 47 long-pending oil/gas leases. U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal gave the federal agency 30 days to act.