Diversified

Diversified Gas & Oil plc said this week that it has extended its asset retirement agreement with Ohio regulators and agreed to plug more wells each year.

Diversified Gas & Oil plc, Appalachia’s largest conventional producer, has seen a significant boost in volumes after it acquired a package of unconventional shale wells from HG Energy II Appalachia LLC in the first quarter.

Alabama-based Diversified Gas & Oil plc has agreed to purchase a package of unconventional natural gas wells in Pennsylvania and West Virginia from HG Energy II Appalachia LLC for $400 million.

Diversified Gas & Oil plc has reached a 15-year agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that addresses asset retirement obligations in the state, where about 40% of all its wells are located.

Diversified Gas & Oil plc, which has faced scrutiny in the Appalachian Basin over well plugging liabilities, has cut a long-term deal with regulators in Kentucky to further address asset retirement obligations.

Diversified Gas & Oil plc is doubling down on its well plugging obligations across the Appalachian Basin, defending its commitment to the process in West Virginia, where it’s being challenged by a skeptical landowner rights organization that’s concerned about how far the company is willing to go to fulfill its responsibilities.

EQT Corp. said Friday that it would sell its formidable 2.5 million net acre position in the Huron formation in Kentucky, Virginia and southern West Virginia for $575 million, parting with an early asset that helped give rise to the nation’s largest natural gas producer before it transitioned to more complex and prolific unconventional operations in the Appalachian Basin.

Worldwide sales of natural gas vehicles (NGV) will increase to more than 3.2 million units annually by 2016, a 68% increase compared with 1.9 million units last year, with commercial sales in North America and Western Europe leading the surge, according to a report released by Pike Research. The increased sales will lead to growth in the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel, with 19 billion cubic meters of gas expected to be sold globally by 2016, the researchers said.

A new report on natural gas as a fuel for Canada’s transportation sector outlines compelling reasons for embracing a diversified transportation fuel strategy that includes natural gas. However, significant challenges to deployment of natural gas vehicles (NGV) in Canada must be overcome, according to the report, which was released by a roundtable of the Canadian Natural Gas Vehicle Alliance (CNGVA).