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German energy giant E.ON Group will be opening an office in Chicago later this year to trade in the U.S. physical natural gas and power markets.

The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Wednesday deferred 20,000 acres in Colorado’s North Fork Valley from an oil/natural gas lease sale set for later this month. Another 88,000 acres elsewhere in the state will be part of the sale.

Two polls show New Yorkers remain evenly split on the issue of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), but one poll shows opponents of the practice could cause more political damage to Gov. Andrew Cuomo if it ultimately is approved.

As a study emerged Monday in Canada raising public health concerns about oilsands, groups long opposed to TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline blasted a report released Friday evaluating a rerouting of the oilsands-linked pipeline in Nebraska by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

ExxonMobil Corp. has offered US$3.14 billion in a cash and debt deal to buy Celtic Exploration Ltd., a Calgary producer with a rich array of unconventional acreage spread across the Montney and Duvernay shales, as well as leaseholds in other formations in Alberta (AB) and British Columbia (BC). The offer that was announced on Wednesday has a cash value of about $2.6 billion, excluding debt.

A group of companies in Ohio that raised nearly $10 million from investors for oil and natural gas development projects has filed for bankruptcy and has agreed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a $4.5 million judgment.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP on Tuesday agreed to extend its natural gas liquids (NGL) gathering pipeline in northwest Pennsylvania to accommodate the start-up later this year of XTO Energy Inc.’s midstream processing plant in Butler County, PA.

Marcellus Shale gas will push out some gas traditionally imported from Dawn, ON, later this year as new pipeline expansions come online, Bentek Energy LLC said in a market note.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has begun working with the state’s Attorney General’s Office to review allegations that Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Encana Corp. worked together to avoid competing in state lease auctions two years ago.