Local

An appeals court in Ohio upheld a local court’s ruling that an operator is not required to fully develop leased property, and disagreed with a landowner’s demand that the undeveloped portion be surrendered and subsequently leased to other oil and gas companies.

A pair of bills designed to tap “affordable natural gas in the MarcellusShale” and bring gas service to more consumers in Pennsylvania has been approved by the state’s Senate and moved to the House of Representatives for consideration.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has allowed itself “to be co-opted by industry interests on the issue of hydraulic fracturing [fracking] for shale gas,” and does not speak for local communities on the issue, representatives of 67 grassroots organizations said Wednesday.

Idaho regulators have taken steps to make sure local MDU Resources Group utility Intermountain Gas Co.’s current projected surplus of liquefied natural gas (LNG) that is sold to nonutility customers includes benefits for the retail regulated gas utility customers.

A former steel plant in Steubenville, OH, is being redeveloped into an industrial park, a portion of which state and local officials say will be used to support operations in the Marcellus Shale.

Driven by the U.S. shale boom and resulting low natural gas prices, the issue for local utility gas providers of extending their distribution pipeline systems is drawing re-examination by regulators and industry researchers.

Internal test results, couple with those of other local operators, have bolstered Mancos Shale natural gas prospects for Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp., according to CEO David Emery, who offered an optimistic outlook in reporting increased profits for 4Q2012 and all of last year for the diversified utility and exploration and production (E&P) company.

The country is in the midst of an “unconventional revolution in oil and gas” whose implications reach well beyond the energy industry, IHS Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin, tells the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Power in pre-filed testimony to be given Tuesday.

Saying they needed more time to implement new oil and natural gas drilling regulations, elected officials in Boulder County, CO, have extended for four months a drilling permit moratorium to June 10.