Fayetteville

Blaze Energy Corp. said it has settled a dispute with Environmental Energy Services Inc. (EESV), exchanging subsidiary EESV Fayetteville Inc. and associated outstanding notes for EESV’s 76% stake in the company, in a stock deal valued at $1.9 million. Under the first phase of a reorganization plan, the Boise, ID-based company — which is not affiliated with Calgary-based Blaze Energy Ltd. — also accepted the resignations of all but one of its employees and canceled the lease for its corporate offices.

After studying hundreds of thousands of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations, the practice was determined to have caused noticeable tremors at the surface in only three cases and was “not a significant” source of earthquakes, according to researchers at UK’s Durham University.

The recent surge in natural gas prices may have provoked some optimism in the energy sector, but it’s not enough to encourage more drilling, according to Barclays Capital, which expects the rig count to not surpass 450 this year.

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. beat its guidance and achieved record production and revenue during the second quarter of 2012, thanks in large part to new oil production from longer laterals drilled in the Eagle Ford Shale and a flatter-than-expected decline in natural gas production with new wells brought online in the Marcellus Shale.

A report published Monday by the group Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States asserts that there is a link between dozens of small earthquakes in Texas’ Barnett Shale and wastewater injection wells that support natural gas drilling.

Concerns over natural gas development and its potential to cause earthquakes continue to linger in Johnson County, TX, after the area has experienced about 10 modest quakes during the last month.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed an executive order on Tuesday temporarily giving the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) additional power to regulate wastewater injection wells used by oil and natural gas drilling operations.

In an apparent bow to local opposition, a Texas company has withdrawn its proposal to build two injection wells for wastewater from oil and natural gas drilling in Mansfield, OH.

Despite strict rules governing wastewater disposal wells, enacted after a dozen small earthquakes were possibly caused by the injections, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is on pace to receive a record number of permit applications this year for new injection wells.