Down

A deep freeze named Brutus hammered North Dakota with a pre-winter force in November, knocking down oil and gas production from all-time record levels the previous month, according to the latest statistics from the state Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

Summit Investments has agreed to acquire Bear Tracker Energy LLC for $513 million from affiliates of GSO Capital Partners LP and Bear Tracker Investments LLC. Midstream company Bear Tracker is focused on oil and natural gas in North Dakota and Colorado.

After serving 11 years as one of three regulators on the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC), Patrick Oshie stepped down last Friday. A successor will be appointed by Washington’s Gov.-elect, Jay Inslee. Oshie was a partner in a Yakima, WA law firm when then-Gov. Gary Locke appointed him to the UTC in 2001; he was subsequently appointed to a second six-year term by Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2006. Oshie previously had served as an assistant city attorney in Seattle and an assistant attorney general in Utah, where he also was a law professor.

With production out of the nation’s shale plays holding down natural gas prices and electricity generation becoming ever more dependent on inexpensive gas, coordination between the two markets will continue to be a top priority and a series of other issues need to be resolved, according to panelists at the Energy Bar Association (EBA) Mid-Year conference in Washington, DC, Friday.

FERC should consider developing a model — one that is closer to those used by other federal enforcement agencies — for cracking down on individual traders who repeatedly manipulate energy markets, Commissioner Philip Moeller said Thursday.

FERC should consider developing a model — one that is closer to those used by other federal enforcement agencies — for cracking down on individual traders who repeatedly manipulate energy markets, Commissioner Philip Moeller said Thursday.

Following a few reporting snafus in its biannual oil and natural gas production report released in August, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has added a click-through disclaimer notice on the Marcellus Shale production section of its website noting that the agency “expressly disclaims any liability for errors or omissions related to the production data” contained within the reports.

Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. grew its natural gas production by 31% and its liquids production 61% during the third quarter compared to year-ago levels, the company said. It credited much of the growth to the Marcellus Shale, where infrastructure constraints that delayed some wells during the second quarter have been overcome.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) last week had taken down from its website a list of how impact fee revenue generated by Act 13, the state’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, was distributed to county and municipal governments.