electricity

Service was restored late Thursday after repair of a rupture on a remote leg of TransCanada Corp.’s Nova natural gas pipeline grid in Alberta, enabling oilsands plants, which are its primary customers, to resume operating after brief interruptions.

Oklahoma City-based Chaparral Energy Inc. is doubling its position in the Marmaton Play in the Texas Panhandle and divesting noncore assets in the Ark-La-Tex region and Permian Basin as it transitions to a pure-play Midcontinent company in anticipation of an initial public offering (IPO) late next year.

Atlas Resource Partners LP (ARP) reached record peak production during the third quarter, with newly acquired Raton and Black Warrior Basin assets representing almost half of the output, the Philadelphia partnership said Wednesday. However, “outside phenomena” could have a negative impact on hitting guidance, the CEO warned.

After receiving insufficient bids for its assets in New York State, two subsidiaries of Norway’s Norse Energy Corp. ASA have entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy and face total liquidation.

Ten lawsuits seeking class action status have been filed by mineral rights owners against North Dakota oil/natural gas operators alleging the loss of millions of dollars in royalties due to large amounts of flared associated gas during the past six years.

North America proved a winner for Schlumberger Ltd. in the third quarter, with revenue rising 7% sequentially, an all-time high, and margins expanding 57 basis points (bps), or 0.57%, to reach 20.3% on a year/year basis. New shale technology tested in several basins helped to lower drilling costs, and it’s now being given a look in other areas.

The average U.S. rig count in the final three months of this year should decline by about 2.5% from 2Q2013, a typical seasonal slowdown around the holidays, and above the pronounced drop in the same period of 2012, when the rig and well count fell by more than 5%, Baker Hughes Inc.’s CFO said Friday.

An anti-shale drilling protest in New Brunswick turned violent Thursday after authorities moved in to enforce an injunction to end an ongoing demonstration.

With natural gas-fired and renewable generation assets as an attraction, Princeton, NJ-based NRG Energy Inc. said Friday it has entered a $2.5 billion “planned sponsor agreement” with Edison Mission Energy (EME) and some of its subsidiaries to eventually acquire the Chapter 11-mired independent power generation company. NRG said it hopes to close the acquisition in the first quarter next year.