Lease

A Pennsylvania environmental group is asking the Commonwealth Court to reconsider a decision it made earlier this month allowing the state to lease forest and park land it owns for oil and gas drilling.

Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court has ruled to uphold an executive order issued by Gov. Tom Corbett to lift a four-year moratorium on subsurface oil and gas leases in state parks and forests, determining that revenue from those leases could go toward the state budget rather than a special fund for conservation.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on Tuesday provided guidance on petroleum product exports, officially clarifying that lightly processed condensate can be exported.

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) on Tuesday proposed increasing the setback distances for oil and natural gas drilling to 500 feet from 350 feet and recommended landowner notification rules.

The total of high bids in the latest northern Alaska oil and gas lease sales — $59.7 million — is the third-highest amount received in state history, according to officials. Competition for tracts was high, they said following the sales on Wednesday.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has scheduled an oil and natural gas lease sale for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) to be held Nov. 19 in Anchorage.

In Texas up to $7.7 million in financial incentives is being made available toward the purchase or lease of new natural gas vehicles (NGV) powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) or propane, and electric vehicles, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) announced.

After months of negotiations, a lease that would provide Antero Resources Corp. with limited surface rights and access to nearly 7,000 acres of prime land in Belmont and Harrison counties, OH, has been approved by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District’s (MWCD) board of directors.

More than 21 million acres will be offered for lease in the Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Planning Area in August, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said Tuesday.