Intent

The San Francisco-based Center for Biological Diversity has issued a 60-day notice of intent to file a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for allegedly failing to keep wildlife protected from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of oil and gas wells on federal lands it manages in the Monterey Shale in central California.

Royal Dutch Shell plc plans to invest a minimum of $1 billion a year in unconventional natural gas exploration in China, the producer’s top China executive said this week.

President Obama on Friday announced his intent to renominate John Norris to remain as a commissioner at FERC and serve a full five-year term to mid-2017.

In North America, development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure is a bit like the weather: wait a while and it will change. An industry once intent on importing LNG to the United States five years later is equally enthusiastic about exporting LNG from North America.

In North America, development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure is a bit like the weather: wait a while and it will change. An industry once intent on importing LNG to the United States five years later is equally enthusiastic about exporting LNG from North America.

A subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Noble Corp. to secure a drilling rig for the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) deepwater. Under the LOI, Noble agreed to provide the Noble Jim Day, a 12,000-foot ultra-deepwater semisubmersible to operate in the GOM effective Feb. 15 through Jan. 31, 2012. The LOI rates depend on whether Shell is able to secure offshore drilling permits under the revamped requirements enacted by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which are being challenged in court (see NGI, Feb. 21). Beginning Aug. 1, or sooner if Shell secures the required federal drilling permit, the operating dayrate for the Noble semisubmersible would be $485,000/day. If Shell is unable to secure the required federal permit, Noble would receive a standby rate of $156,000/day from Feb. 15 through May 31; and $242,000/day from June 1 through July 31, according to the LOI.

A subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Noble Corp. to secure a drilling rig for the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) deepwater.

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Corp. has signed a letter of intent to acquire a 25% nonoperated working interest in 5,990 acres in Borden County, TX, the Houston-based independent said Wednesday.

Natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale over the next two decades could impact the state’s forests and alter several thousand acres of habitat, The Nature Conservancy said Monday in a study.