Extension

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans has ruled against Chesapeake Energy Corp. in its bid to reverse a $19.7 million judgment over a canceled oil and gas lease offer in Texas, a decision that may hold implications on canceled lease claims by mineral rights owners in several other states.

The Ohio House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor of an energy bill that also creates new rules for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state. The bill is to be sent to Gov. John Kasich for his signature.

A bill that would create rules governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) passed a key committee in the state House of Representatives on Wednesday and is scheduled to be submitted to the full House for a floor vote on Thursday.

Crosstex Energy LP will pay about $210 million to buy privately held pipeline services provider Clearfield Energy Inc., a deal that would significantly expand its crude oil and condensate services in the Utica Shale, the Dallas-based partnership said Tuesday.

Lifted by prices and successful well tests from an extension of the emerging Mississippian Lime play, oil production in Kansas rose last year, according to new estimates by the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas. Natural gas production in 2011, however, declined by more than 6%.

A sidetrack appraisal well at the Heidelberg prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) has successfully confirmed an extension of up to 1,500 acres, an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. executive said Thursday.

The race to break through the Midcontinent bottleneck and flow expanding supplies of crude oil, bolstered by shale production to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and world markets moved up by about 300,000 b/d with separate announcements Wednesday of plans to reverse the flow of the Seaway crude oil pipeline, and a possible go-ahead for the Cushing to the GOM southern section of the stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Land that Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has long controlled in northern Colorado in the Wattenberg Field holds a huge liquids-rich resource potential of 500 million to 1.5 billion boe net, executives disclosed this week. Separately, Noble Energy Inc., which controls 400,000 net acres in the play, said Tuesday it has identified 1.3 billion boe of net risked resources with the potential for even more.

Tuesday’s market was largely an extension of the one that started the week: quotes a bit softer at most locations but a few flat to slightly higher points keeping movement mixed overall. Even as restoration efforts get into high gear along the East Coast following Hurricane Irene’s damage, the overall weather outlook is too moderate to be supportive of gas prices.