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The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tuesday announced that it will hold an oil and natural gas auction on Nov. 7 in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), its second in less than a year, offering producers 400 tracts and an estimated 4.5 million acres to explore.

ExxonMobil Corp. has increased its hold in the Bakken Shale to nearly 600,000 net acres after agreeing to acquire Denbury Resources Inc.’s entire portfolio in the play, 196,000 net acres. The North Dakota and Montana properties had average production in the first six months of this year of about 15,400 boe/d, 88% weighted to oil and liquids.

To build its “shale-related businesses,” Houston-based oilfield services operator FMC Technologies Inc., better known for its subsea business, is acquiring Calgary’s Pure Energy Services Ltd. for US$285 million.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is expecting to hold its annual sale of oil and gas lease tracts in the Beaufort Sea, North Slope and North Slope Foothills on Nov. 7. The sale area encompasses 14.7 million acres, an area the size of Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut combined.

Protesters aiming to “Stop the Frack Attack” were planning to hold a three-day meeting in the nation’s capital at the end of this week for obstructionist training sessions and lobbying of Congress, to be followed by a Saturday afternoon demonstration on the West Lawn of the Capitol.

Cash natural gas prices eked out a modest gain Wednesday, but traders were not optimistic prices would hold current relatively lofty levels for long. A soft bidweek is expected. Midcontinent points were firm and at Northeast and Eastern locations double-digit increases in next-day power prices helped lift next day gas. At the close of futures trading August had fallen 11.7 cents to $3.070 and September was lower by 12.5 cents to $3.052. September crude oil added 47 cents to $88.97/bbl.

Devon Energy recently completed its fourth horizontal well in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) and the initial production test figures show the strongest oil production results of the company’s TMS wells drilled to date” at 384 b/d, according to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Natural gas storage companies say they are not concerned that Pennsylvania will run out of underground capacity, despite last winter’s mild weather, higher-than-normal amounts of gas already in storage and increased production from the Marcellus Shale.

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP plans to hold an open season soon for a new crude oil pipeline project that would carry production from the Permian Basin in West Texas to Gulf Coast markets.