Independent

Denver-based independent Ovintiv Inc. is setting its sights on sharply reducing the methane intensity of its North American onshore operations by one-third over the next four years, and it wants the entire workforce to buy in. The board-approved 33% reduction in methane intensity, to be met by 2025, would be tied to the annual incentive…

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Thursday said it plans to develop a proposed rule requiring companies who make chemical substances and mixtures used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to report data on the chemicals.

Denver-based exploration and production (E&P) independent QEP Resources Inc. reported encouraging results from its first four-well pad drilling on recently acquired South Antelope property in the Williston Basin in North Dakota. QEP said it also completed nine wells — four in the Bakken and five in the Three Forks formations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

Natural gas has become the fuel of choice of power generators operating in the seven independent system operators (ISO) and regional transmission organizations (RTO) across the nation, and demand is expected to grow.

Natural gas has become the fuel of choice of power generators operating in the seven independent system operators (ISO) and regional transmission organizations (RTO) across the nation, and demand is expected to grow.

Thomas F. Darden has retired from the Quicksilver Resources Inc. board chairmanship and from his officer position effective Wednesday, the company said. He will remain on the board as a director and chairman emeritus and will continue to work for Quicksilver through the end of the year. He will be focused on pursuing a joint venture in British Columbia’s Horn River Basin, something that the Fort Worth, TX-based company has sought for some time (see Shale Daily, May 8). Darden is to retire from Quicksilver on Dec. 31 but will continue to advise the company on the Horn River development and other projects, the company said. W. Yandell Rogers was elected chairman Wednesday. He has served as an independent director since March 1999.

A proposed settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and two independent producers, which allegedly rigged bidding in a government lease sale in Colorado, would nearly double the fines to be paid by the companies, compared with a previous settlement, according to documents filed recently in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.

Shareholders once again are urging ExxonMobil Corp. to report how its natural gas operations in shale formations impact the environment. The oil major once again is recommending the proposal be defeated.

One of the 10 largest U.S. natural gas producers, Tulsa, OK-based WPX Energy Inc., said Monday that its Niobrara formation discovery well in the Piceance Basin of western Colorado has exceeded 1 Bcf of production in a little more than 100 days of operation.