Included

These days with no end to decade-low gas prices in sight, Newfield Exploration Co. CEO Lee Boothby can’t wait to be in charge of an oil-weighted production company, and it’s going to happen soon, he said Wednesday. Newfield has put down the dry gas drillbit and is focusing intently on oil and liquids-rich plays.

A Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field office in southwestern Colorado has released a preliminary environmental assessment calling for 21 parcels and 24,324 acres to be included in an upcoming natural gas lease sale. The draft assessment pared an initial proposal to include 22 parcels and up to 29,811 acres, mostly in Gunnison County, CO, in the auction, which is scheduled to be held Aug. 9. Under the BLM program, obtaining the leases is the first part of a multi-step process in which each lease holder would have to obtain a drilling permit, which would entail another environmental assessment of the individual drilling plans for each lease. It is all part of BLM’s master development plan and its use of multi-well development to help manage federal lease development. Before any exploration and development work can start, however, there will be site-specific reviews and analysis completed as called for under the National Environmental Policy Act, BLM officials said.

Funding for a proposed study of the health impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is not included in a $132.5 billion state budget that the New York State Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed to on Tuesday.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) unanimously agreed Thursday to create a statewide registry for all nonpublic utility and hazardous liquids pipelines, to assess operators for the costs, and for its inspectors to begin enforcing federal pipeline safety laws on most classifications of pipeline.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is asking state lawmakers to hold firm on local zoning restrictions included in legislation to impose an impact fee on natural gas drillers.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is asking state lawmakers to hold firm on local zoning restrictions included in legislation to impose an impact fee on natural gas drillers.

The House Friday passed by 296-121 a major omnibus spending bill to avert a shutdown of the federal government. Senate approval of the measure, which included nine different appropriations bills to fund agencies through fiscal 2012, was imminent. The bill contains several provisions that are favorable to the oil and natural gas industry, including one that would give the Interior Department authority over air quality compliance in the Arctic offshore.

Natural gas production is continuing to take a back seat to crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) production from the Eagle Ford Shale at Houston-based EOG Resources Inc.

Due to adjustments made by oil and natural gas service companies, Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee Tuesday said 500,000 gallons more of diesel fuel and fluids were used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) between 2005 and 2009 than were previously reported.