Lost

During the first quarter, Quicksilver Resources Inc. lost more money than Wall Street was expecting as the company continued to “hammer on the cost side” of its business, deferring elective spending in the energy patch and cutting back on staff.

Southwestern Energy Co. is producing about 400 MMcf/d in the Marcellus Shale and doesn’t foresee any constraints in moving natural gas to markets north or south for the next couple of years, executives said Friday.

The physical market lost a dime on average Thursday, but it was a mixed performance with gains in producing regions such as the Gulf Coast, Midcontinent and Rockies unable to offset free-falling prices in the Northeast and East.

Shell Chemical LP is offering to pay western Pennsylvania localities millions for lost tax revenue affected by its proposed “world-scale” ethane cracker. The Beaver County Commissioners said the Royal Dutch Shell plc subsidiary had made an initial proposal to pay localities 110% of the annual property tax revenue currently being paid by Horsehead Holding Corp., which owns the proposed cracker site. State law caps payments-in-lieu-of-taxes at 110%. County tax records show Horsehead, a zinc producer, was assessed around $6.2 million for the 2013 tax year. At 110%, Shell’s offer could amount to an annual payment of about $6.82 million over 22 years, but the county said negotiations are needed. Local stakeholders are preparing to file an application to the state Department of Community and Economic Development for a Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone for the ethane cracker site. Such a designation would, if approved, give Shell up to 22 years of tax exceptions and abatements.

A subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc has offered to pay localities millions for lost tax revenue affected by its proposed “world-scale” ethane cracker.

Hope was all but lost last Friday that 11 missing crew members from drilling rig Deepwater Horizon — which burned and sank in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) — would be found, although rescuers continued to search. While some feared an environmental catastrophe, oil sheen on the water appeared to be from the explosion and not a leaking well, officials said.

ATP Oil & Gas Corp. has filed a lawsuit claiming that it lost more than $68 million when the federal government “improperly and illegally” suspended offshore drilling in the wake of the April 2010 Macondo well blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and “unlawfully delayed” permits to the company even after the moratorium was lifted.

Unconventional natural gas activity supported more than one million jobs in 2010, a number that is likely to grow to nearly 1.5 million by 2015. The industry is expected to generate significant job creation, economic growth and tax revenues nationwide — in producing and non-producing states alike — according to a new report from IHS Global Insight.

The bloom has been off the dry gas rose for a while now, but the Fayetteville Shale continues to provide Arkansas with a bouquet of economic activity and job creation, according to a new study.