Land

The U.S. government has missed out on billions of dollars of revenue from overly generous and outdated terms for oil and gas leases on federal land in Colorado, according to a report by the Taxpayers for Common Sense advocacy group.

A federal district court judge in Nevada has ruled against two environmental groups that sued the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over its handling of a pair of 2017 oil and gas lease sales.

Houston-based Superior Energy Services Inc., which provides drilling, completion and production-related needs worldwide, is expecting a contraction in U.S. land operations into 2019 on an overabundance of hydraulic fracturing equipment and withering completions demand.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Utah has opened a scoping period through July 31 for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process to evaluate a proposed oil and gas lease sale for 330,000 acres of federal land. The lease sale is tentatively scheduled for December. Information and scoping comments are available at BLM’s National NEPA Register project page.

U.S. land permitting year-to-date has surpassed the full-year total for 2016, led by nearly irrepressible gains in the Permian Basin of West Texas, according to an analysis.

PTT Global Chemical pcl (PTTGC) has signed purchase option agreements with eight landowners near the proposed site of its multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in Ohio, giving the company the ability to buy the properties if it were to move forward with the facility.

U.S. land rig margins increased on average by more than $800/day for Helmerich & Payne Inc. (H&P) during the fiscal third quarter on increased utilization and demand for super-specification rigs.

In a continuing sign that things are beginning to move in a positive direction for the oil and gas markets — at least in the onshore — National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) booked an order during 4Q2016 to manufacture 75,000 hydraulic hp of fracture stimulation pumps and associated support equipment for an independent oilfield services provider, the Houston-based company said Tuesday.

Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline LLC (TGP) has reached a settlement with the state of Massachusetts that clears the way for the pipeline’s Connecticut Expansion Project to traverse the Otis State Forest in Sandisfield, MA, in Berkshire County.