Leases

A conservation-minded citizens group in northeastern Nevada last Friday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Interior Department and its Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the U.S. District Court for Nevada, challenging the legality of BLM allowing an oil/natural gas lease sale to proceed earlier this year.

Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom Corbett could soon issue an executive order to lift a nearly four-year moratorium on new oil and gas leases in state parks and forests that would continue to bar new leases for surface operations, but offer operators access to the mineral rights under state land from wells on adjoining private land.

Drilling for natural gas and oil in northern Colorado has American Rivers calling the state’s White River one of the most endangered rivers in the United States.

Two producers in the Thompson Divide area of western Colorado that could be an onramp to unleashing Mancos Shale supplies Tuesday received a two-year extension on their natural gas leases, to allow time for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to conduct a new and unprecedented post-leasing environmental review of a broader region, according to the Western Energy Alliance (WEA).

Wednesday afternoon, Dallas City Council voted to deny Trinity East Energy LLC three permits it needed to drill on leases within the city for which it has already paid $19 million, setting the city up for a possible legal challenge from the company that could end up costing it millions before the nearly five-year saga is over.

Cardinal Energy Grouphas agreed to purchase fromKansas Petroleum Resources LLCa 100% working interest in oil and natural gas leases in Kansas that cover about 17,000 acres in Pawnee and Hodgeman counties and other operational assets. The wells to be acquired are within the oil producing zones of the Mississippian Lime formation, Lansing-Kansas City limestone formation, the Cherokee Sand Basin and the Permian Chase Group formations. Financial terms of the deal were not released. The acquisition is part of Cardinal’s ongoing plan “to build a portfolio of oil and gas properties in the continental United States that are poised for further development,” the company said. The assets include 3-D seismic surveys, 19 vertical oil-producing wells and two water disposal wells that have been drilled into the Arbuckle formation, according to Cardinal CEOTimothy Crawford. Upon completion of the acquisition, Cardinal’s annual oil production is expected to increase by at least 300 b/d.

A Pennsylvania lawmaker wants to repeal a controversial section of a new drilling law — as well as portions of state law dating back to 1961 — to protect landowners from what she says amounts to forced pooling.

Thirteen days after Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed a controversial drilling bill into law, the debate over how it will affect Marcellus Shale development took a new turn when EQT Corp. filed a lawsuit against 69 landowners and a golf course in Allegheny County, PA.

Alaska received nearly $4.5 million in high bids for oil and gas leases in Cook Inlet and received a bid for a geothermal lease on Augustine Island during a series of lease sales on Wednesday.