Leased

A new company has leased about 1,500 acres in the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia and hopes to find investors to raise $2 billion to develop an ethane cracker and other downstream facilities.

If ever there was an explorer for other producers to take a page from, it just might be Noble Energy Inc., which has quietly become one of the players to watch in the U.S. onshore.

A significant amount of previously leased acreage will be included in Alaska’s North Slope oil and gas lease sale in December, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said. Due to lease expirations and other administrative actions, an additional 200,000 acres are to be available in the vicinity of Point Thomson and in the Beaufort Sea.

FERC Thursday approved Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s and Dominion Transmission Inc.’s proposed system expansions to deliver gas from the Marcellus Shale/Appalachian Basin to existing markets in New England and to the Niagara Falls area of New York.

While the Marcellus Shale continues to drive growth for National Fuel Gas (NFG) Co., the Williamsville, NY-based company is now offering details on its short-term plans for the Upper Devonian/Geneseo and the Utica shales, the company told analysts recently.

A township in western Pennsylvania adopted a conditional use ordinance on Wednesday, the latest development in a kerfuffle with its dominant driller, Range Resources Corp.

Denver-based Inflection Energy has leased 3,000 additional acres in Broome County, NY, in the midst of the Marcellus Shale, bringing the total under its control in the state to approximately 15,000 acres. The county is located on the border with Pennsylvania, where the privately held exploration and production company holds more than 6,000 acres.

While the commission that was appointed by President Obama to look into the fatal explosion aboard the BP plc-leased Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20 continue to press for a higher liability cap on offshore damages and the creation of a separate safety institute, some senators are concerned with the fact that liability is centered solely on the operator, allowing contractors a free pass.

While the commission that was appointed by President Obama to look into the fatal explosion aboard the BP plc-leased Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20 continued to press for a higher liability cap on offshore damages and the creation of a separate safety institute Wednesday, some senators were concerned with the fact that liability is centered solely on the operator, allowing contractors a free pass.