Dropped

The U.S. land rig count continued working lower in the latest tally from Baker Hughes Inc., released on Friday. It’s on its way to a trough of 375-400, according to one firm tracking the action.

The U.S. land rig count dropped by another 13 units for the week ending March 11 when there was an exodus of horizontal rigs that saw Texas leading declines among the states.

The rig count keeps going down in North Dakota, and it is going to get lower and stay down longer than previously thought, according to comments Friday by the state’s oil/gas regulator.

Privately held Antero Resources Corp., which has all of its chips in the Appalachian Basin, plans to raise $1 billion through an initial public offering (IPO) of some of its stock on the New York Stock Exchange, it said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The operator also has increased capital spending plans for the year.

Three storms in March failed to deter oil and natural gas operations in North Dakota, which set new all-time highs for the month, according to the latest statistics from the state Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

Chesapeake Energy Corp., which has dropped rigs and deferred most of its dry natural gas drilling for the year, said last week that stronger-than-anticipated output from the Marcellus Shale should lift gas output higher in 2013 than it was two years ago.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., which has dropped rigs and deferred most of its dry natural gas drilling for the year, said Wednesday that stronger-than-anticipated output from the Marcellus Shale should lift output higher in 2013 than it was two years ago.

Driven by a sharp increase in natural gas prices, gas for electric generation dropped all over the nation, except in Florida, on a month-over-month basis in February compared to February 2012, according to the latest Electricity Monthly report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which was released Monday.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. said Friday it has dropped a drillbit into its first Utica Shale horizontal target in Ohio’s northern Washington County.