Includes

Templar Energy LLC, a newly formed exploration and production company, has completed its first acquisition in the Anadarko Basin, an asset package that includes about 7,000 net acres in Oklahoma’s Ellis and Roger Mills counties in Oklahoma, according the company’s financial backer, First Reserve Corp.

ConocoPhillips is selling a package of properties in the Cedar Creek Anticline (CCA) of North Dakota and Montana to Denbury Resources Inc. for $1.05 billion cash.

MSC also released a longer video on social media channels and is asking viewers to submit their questions about natural gas production and use. The video includes a series of clips from a variety of news programs detailing the economic benefits of developing the Marcellus Shale.

Noble Energy Inc. announced Thursday that it plans to spend $3.9 billion on capital expenditures (capex) in 2013, almost half of which will go toward drilling horizontal wells in the Niobrara-Denver Julesburg (DJ) Basin.

EQT Corp. plans to spend $1.5 billion on capital expenditures (capex), drill more than 170 wells and invest $320 million in midstream projects in 2013, according to the company’s operational forecast released Tuesday.

Following a few reporting snafus in its biannual oil and natural gas production report released in August, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has added a click-through disclaimer notice on the Marcellus Shale production section of its website noting that the agency “expressly disclaims any liability for errors or omissions related to the production data” contained within the reports.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has completed sales of its Permian Basin properties, which allows it to reduce the outstanding balance on existing term loans to $1.2 billion from $4 billion by the end of this month. The company said it plans to fully repay the term loans by the end of the year. The assets sold produced close to 21,000 b/d of liquids and 90 MMcf/d of natural gas in 2Q2012, or about 5.7% of Chesapeake’s production during the period. The multi-sales package was announced in September (see Shale Daily, Sept. 13). SWEPI LP, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, bought the southern Delaware Basin assets, while the northern Delaware Basin portion was sold to Chevron U.S.A. Inc., a subsidiary of Chevron Corp. The producing assets in the Midland Basin were sold to affiliates of Houston-based EnerVest Ltd.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments this week in a controversial mineral rights case that could have enormous implications over ownership rights in the Marcellus Shale.

It’s too early in the game to know if the productivity power of the Utica/Point Pleasant Shale in Ohio and western Pennsylvania will match other U.S. unconventional plays, but initial natural gas well data is encouraging, and if the oil-prone window is successfully derisked, the play could prove to be a triple-play hydrocarbon monster, according to IHS Inc. researchers.