Funds

ConocoPhillips, the largest U.S. independent by market value, plans to sell stakes in an Australian project and in the Canada oilsands to direct more funds to U.S. onshore plays, CEO Ryan Lance said Thursday.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has unveiled a $7.2-7.6 billion capital expenditure (capex) plan for this year, and it plans to direct most of those funds to U.S. onshore and Gulf of Mexico (GOM), the operator said last week. The forecast capex for 2013 is sharply higher from a projection set last March of of $6.6-6.9 billion.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. on Wednesday unveiled a capital expenditure (capex) plan for this year of $7.2-7.6 billion, with most of the funds directed to the U.S. onshore and Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The forecast capex for 2013 is sharply higher from a projection set last March of of $6.6-6.9 billion.

A portion of excess funds from a recent Colorado state revenue forecast should be spent to study the impact of oil and gas exploration and development on air quality, according to the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB). In an amended spending request to the state’s Joint Budget Committee, the OSPB asked that $492,776 go to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to conduct the survey, and another $567,000 from the state’s capital construction budget be used to purchase equipment for the survey. Gov. John Hickenlooper also recommended $1.3 million in cash fund spending authority for CDPHE to enter into a collaborative partnership with Colorado State University to begin collecting data for a broader study of the impacts of oil and gas operations on air quality in the state’s northern Front Range (see Shale Daily, Jan. 14).

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has finalized the process it will use for encouraging and reviewing proposals to use mine-influenced water, such as acid mine drainage, in oil and gas extraction operations from shale formations.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) last week had taken down from its website a list of how impact fee revenue generated by Act 13, the state’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, was distributed to county and municipal governments.

Investment funds affiliated with Riverstone Holdings LLC, and Kaiser Midstream, a midstream services company owned by Tulsa, OK, billionaire George B. Kaiser, are partnering with Sage Midstream LLC to form a new company with up to $500 million of equity commitments.

The cash-strapped state park system in Colorado is considering using its nonprofit foundation to bring in more private-sector funds, which include allowing more oil and natural gas drilling in some of the state parks, such as the drilling currently taking place at one state park, St. Vrain, near Longmont, CO. A series of public meetings around the state has been set to kick off Thursday in Grand Junction and continue in Colorado Springs (July 24), Fort Collins (July 31) and Denver (Aug. 8). Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials are considering corporate sponsorships and/or more oil and gas drilling in state parks to cope with budget cuts, according to reports this month in various news media around the state. Assistant Director Ken Brink told local news media that park visitors do not want state parks named after corporations, or more oil/gas drilling in the parks, but the officials say they may have no choice. There are 42 state parks in Colorado that now are forced to develop all of their revenues through user fees.

Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s board of directors Thursday was working with CEO Aubrey McClendon to terminate early the Founder Well Participation Program (FWPP) in which the CEO has a contractual right to participate and invest up to a 2.5% working interest in every new well the company drills.