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MarkWest Energy Partners LP has closed on its acquisition of partner The Energy and Minerals Group’s (EMG) 49% stake in MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources LLC.

Victory Energy Corp. said Thursday a carbonite formation well in southeastern New Mexico it holds an interest in has been successfully re-entered, five years after being plugged, and is now completed, fracked and producing oil and natural gas.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead on Wednesday asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cooperate in a scientific review and analysis of groundwater quality in Pavillion, which federal officials assert may have been polluted by natural gas drilling and well stimulation practices.

A report by an economics professor at Ohio State University says shale gas development in eastern Ohio will generate jobs, but only a fraction of the total projected by the industry.

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.

BP plc said last week it would appeal after federal officials slapped the producer with two additional charges involving five incidents of noncompliance (INC) related to the April 2010 Macondo well blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

BP plc said Wednesday it would appeal after federal officials on Wednesday slapped the producer with two additional charges involving five incidents of noncompliance (INC) related to the April 2010 Macondo well blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s decision five years ago to build an onshore position in the United States to rival its massive Gulf of Mexico holdings is more than paying off, and in places that many have put way down on the go-to list. Land that the independent has long controlled in northern Colorado holds a massive liquids-rich resource potential of 500 million to 1.5 billion boe net, executives have disclosed this week.

The Senate late Thursday confirmed Mark P. Wetjen, former policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), to a five-year term on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), succeeding departing Commissioner Michael Dunn.