Five

Five conservation groups on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging the Department of Interior’s plans to hold a Central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) lease sale in New Orleans on Wednesday, claiming the Obama administration has failed to address the risks to wildlife and the environment following the Macondo deepwater well blowout two years ago.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is considering revisions to requirements for the Air Quality Standard Permit for Oil and Gas Handling and Production Facilities, which are used to authorize oil and gas facilities in the Barnett Shale of North-Central Texas.

Oil and natural gas production in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale continued climbing in April, according to a state Industrial Commission preliminary report released Wednesday. A continuing supply glut wreaks havoc on prices for Bakken crude, according to an analysis from RBN Energy LLC.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) has cut the corporate credit rating of Fort Worth, TX-based FTS International Services LLC, one of the top five hydraulic fracturing (fracking) service providers in North America, because it said capacity additions and rising costs, combined with moderating demand and low natural gas prices, are pressuring margins in the fracture stimulation industry.

Three families in western Pennsylvania have filed a lawsuit against 17 defendants, including an operator for Range Resources Corp. and two independent water testing labs, alleging that a drilling and impoundment site caused health problems. The plaintiffs also accused Range and the labs of conspiring to hide evidence of drinking water contamination.

Citizens for Property Rights (CPR), a five-member group that opposes what members believe are too-strict restrictions on gas drilling imposed by the city of Southlake, TX, failed to get enough signatures on a petition to relax some of the rules. However, CRP Chairman Stephen Oren said the group will try again.

MDU Resources Group Inc., which has five rigs in operation in the Bakken Shale and holds 124,000 net leasehold acres in the play, said subsidiary Bitter Creek Pipelines LLC has paid $66 million for a 50% interest in Whiting Oil and Gas Corp.’s natural gas and oil midstream assets near Belfield, ND.

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.