Lease

With an average production rate of almost 10 MMcf/d in the first quarter, a discovery well in the Piceance Basin may produce in the first few months what a typical well in the Niobrara formation has done over 25 to 30 years, WPX energy CEO Ralph Hill said Thursday.

Blaze Energy Corp. said it has settled a dispute with Environmental Energy Services Inc. (EESV), exchanging subsidiary EESV Fayetteville Inc. and associated outstanding notes for EESV’s 76% stake in the company, in a stock deal valued at $1.9 million. Under the first phase of a reorganization plan, the Boise, ID-based company — which is not affiliated with Calgary-based Blaze Energy Ltd. — also accepted the resignations of all but one of its employees and canceled the lease for its corporate offices.

Forest Oil Corp. has struck an agreement with Schlumberger that the company said will allow it to accelerate development of its Eagle Ford Shale acreage.

The Interior Department has finalized plans to lease to natural gas and oil operators nearly 12 million acres — more than half — of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A), which would allow, among other things, pipelines to be built to transport offshore Chukchi and Beaufort seas production.

The Interior Department has finalized plans to lease to natural gas and oil operators nearly 12 million acres — more than half — of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A), which would allow, among other things, pipelines to be built to transport offshore Chukchi and Beaufort seas production.

Big Sky Petroleum Corp. has acquired a 90% working interest in an initial lease block of more than 2,300 net operated acres on the eastern shelf of the southern Midland Basin in West Texas. The deal gives the Vancouver, BC-based company entry into the Wolfcamp/Wolfberry play.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp.’s Bakken Hunter LLC is buying existing wells and about 20,000 net Williston Basin lease acres in Divide County, ND, from Samson Resources Co. for $30 million in cash.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has signed an executive order prohibiting the state’s Department of Natural Resources “from issuing any permit, license or lease allowing for the withdrawal or production of oil and gas from or under the bed of Lake Erie.” Congress previously enacted legislation prohibiting the issuance of permits or leases for drilling under the Great Lakes, but it was important that Ohio issue its own prohibition on Lake Erie drilling in case the congressional ban should be lifted, according to the executive order.

The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced the results of Tuesday and Wednesday lease sales in the Dakotas and New Mexico. They brought in nearly $29 million combined: $3.3 million from the Dakotas and $25.6 million from New Mexico.