Existing

Hydrocarbon resources — oil, natural gas and coal — in North America are more than four times the resources existing in the Middle East, and the United States is now the fastest-growing producer of oil and natural gas in the world, according to a new report from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

Following “extensive discussions” with two of its largest shareholders, Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Monday announced that four existing independent directors would resign from the board. The company also has put up for sale 337,481 net acres in its prized Utica/Point Pleasant Shale, which would give it less than one million acres in the play.

State officials squared off with House subcommittee Democrats Thursday over the role, if any, that the Obama administration should have in regulating hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

In the final lease sale under the existing five-year Outer Continental Shelf plan, to be held on June 20, the Interior Department will make available to producers all unleased areas in the Central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Planning Area offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, including 7,276 blocks on about 38.6 million acres.

In what will be the final lease sale under the existing five-year Outer Continental Shelf plan, Interior Department last Thursday said it would make available to producers in June all unleased areas in the Central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Planning Area offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, including 7,276 blocks on about 38.6 million acres.

Marketed natural gas production of the top-five producing states — Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Colorado — grew 7.5% last year, but their combined share of U.S. gas output fell slightly to about 65%, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

A new completion design doubled initial production (IP) rates from the Marcellus Shale in southwestern Pennsylvania for Range Resources, the Fort Worth, TX-based company said Thursday.

The outlook for takeaway capacity from the Marcellus Shale continued to brighten this week, with FERC approving three pipeline expansion projects — two requested by National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. and another by Texas Eastern Transmission — designed to feed Marcellus gas to Northeast markets.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. unit Bakken Hunter LLC has agreed to acquire Williston Basin properties from an affiliate of Baytex Energy Corp. for $311 million in cash. The company also said Wednesday it is trimming spending in Appalachia because of low natural gas prices.