Funds

Houston-based EnerVest Ltd., one of the largest privately held onshore exploration operators in the United States, is working with its investors and lenders to recapitalize over-leveraged equity funds and may sell more assets to ensure it is in compliance. However, one of the funds is not about to be taken over by one of the lenders, a spokesman told NGI.

Wyoming’s three designated funds collectively grossed nearly $30 million from the state’s first online oil and natural gas lease auction earlier this month, the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investment (OSLI) said on Monday.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s spokesman said on Friday that the governor would veto a budget passed by the legislature on Thursday that uses $183 million of Rainy Day reserve funds and $62 million of one-time funds from various state accounts to balance a deficit. The state has been without a 2016-2017 budget since March when lawmakers failed to pass it after they couldn’t agree on tax increases and spending cuts (see Shale Daily,March 15). Instead they relied on the reserve and one-time funds to plug a $270 million shortfall. Tomblin’s office said the budget doesn’t address a $380 million shortfall that’s projected for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 and said tax increases are going to have to be a part of the solution. The state has long relied on coal and natural gas severance taxes to balance its budget, but the commodities downturn has strained its finances. It has already cut state spending on the falling revenues (see Shale Daily,Oct. 6, 2015). The state has projected a significant decline in FY 2016 severance tax collections, reflecting coal’s sustained fall and stagnant gas prices. A special session has been scheduled for June 12. If lawmakers don’t pass a budget by July 1, state government would shut down.

To avoid the unavoidable price volatility that accompanies oil and natural gas development, states that have become dependent on energy revenues should consider creating permanent trust funds that overcome boom-and-bust price cycles, the Brookings Institution said Tuesday.

To avoid the unavoidable price volatility that accompanies oil and natural gas development, states that have become dependent on energy revenues should consider creating permanent trust funds that overcome boom-and-bust price cycles, the Brookings Institution said Tuesday.

A Pennsylvania program aimed at promoting housing affordability and rehabilitation that has relied for four years on state impact fees paid by unconventional natural gas producers is likely to be expanded with additional funding from the state’s realty transfer tax.

Post Oak Energy Capital and funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management have made a $100 million capital commitment to PetroEdge Energy III LLC, a newly formed oil and gas company based in Houston and focused on the Eagle Ford Shale.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said it found naturally occurring dissolved methane at several household wells used for drinking water in Sullivan County, PA, during pre-drill baseline testing at sites not near existing oil and gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Texas lawmakers have sent a bill to Gov. Rick Perry that would provide $225 million in general revenue funds to help repair and maintain county roads damaged by oil and gas production activity, mainly in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale regions.