Ending

Continental Resources Inc. has successfully completed its second natural gas well in the Anadarko Woodford play, while the company’s production total continued to rise during 4Q2011.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Marc Spitzer stepped down from his post last Wednesday (Dec. 14), ending a five-year term on the Commission. Spitzer’s term expired on June 30, but in the absence of a replacement he was empowered to continue in the post until Congress goes into recess at the end of the year. Republican Spitzer has been known for emphasizing a cooperative, bipartisan approach to energy issues and has been supportive of the shale gas revolution and its impact on the electric power industry. The former chairman of the Arizona Corporation Commission has not said what his plans are for the future. Spitzer’s departure leaves the Commission with three Democrats and one Republican. According to FERC rules, his successor would have to be a Republican or an independent. With a clear Democratic majority and no deadline for the appointment or installation of a successor, the president has not been in a hurry to nominate a replacement.

Pacific Gas and Electric is ending a systemwide low-inventory OFO Wednesday after it had been in effect on the utility’s California Gas Transmission system Monday and Tuesday.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that although natural gas production in North Dakota has more than doubled since 2005, so far more than 35% of that production for 2011 has been flared or otherwise not marketed because of insufficient infrastructure in the Bakken Shale.

Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. has agreed to purchase approximately 50,000 net leasehold acres in the Bakken Shale play from an undisclosed private oil and gas company for $540 million in cash and $50 million in stock, and agreed to assume the terms of a drilling rig contract.

The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has asked four companies operating in the Haynesville Shale to temporarily refrain from withdrawing water for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) from Bayou Pierre because of an ongoing severe drought.

Oil and gas companies operating in North Dakota’s portion of the Bakken Shale are spending about $3 billion on infrastructure projects to capture natural gas currently being lost to flaring at oil drilling sites.

Natural gas development in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale has been economically beneficial, but maybe not as much as some studies have suggested, according to research by Pennsylvania State University.

After ending a previous Overage Alert Day (OAD) Friday but saying a new one might become necessary soon, Florida Gas Transmission wasted little time before implementing a new OAD for market-area customers Saturday. The tolerance for negative daily imbalances was initially set at 20% that day but was increased to 25% Sunday and Monday.