Hopeful

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) has drafted proposed rules for sampling and monitoring groundwater before and after new wells are drilled, as well as changes to setbacks, which formalizes some procedures that the industry had begun voluntarily last year (see Shale Daily, Aug. 4, 2011).

A lawsuit that sought an extensive environmental review of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Delaware River Basin by the State of New York and a coalition of environmental groups has been dismissed by a federal judge. However, the ruling left open to question whether an environmental assessment of the basin may be required in the future.

As the supermajor gets back to business in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) deepwater, one of its core areas, BP plc executives are hopeful that they can complete “in a few days” the $7.8 billion settlement tentatively reached last month with thousands of individuals and businesses that were impacted by the April 2010 Macondo well blowout, Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Thursday at the company’s annual meeting.

BP plc executives are hopeful that they can complete “in a few days” the $7.8 billion settlement tentatively reached last month with thousands of individuals and businesses that were impacted by the April 2010 Macondo well blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM), Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Thursday at the company’s annual meeting.

Hopeful that it is seeing the final months of a moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) tick away in New York, Norse Energy Corp. ASA — a company that, like many others, has suffered through years of uncertainty at the hands of the delay — is positioning itself to hit the ground running in the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Hopeful that it is seeing the final months of a moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) tick away in New York, Norse Energy Corp. ASA — a company that, like many others, has suffered through years of uncertainty at the hands of the delay — is positioning itself to hit the ground running in the Marcellus and Utica shales.

A U.S. affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell plc is hopeful that the federal government will allow it to begin drilling for oil and natural gas in the Alaskan Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) next year, and believes that moving forward with exploration and production would boost the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAP) and make the case for construction of a pipeline to transport natural gas.

Norway’s Norse Energy Corp. ASA said Monday it has received regulatory approval to sell two natural gas pipeline companies so that it can focus on exploration and production activities in the Marcellus Shale play in New York.

Legislation that would open leasing on all property owned by the state government — including state parks — to oil and gas companies is advancing through the Ohio General Assembly and is expected to pass.