Lost

A federal judge in Erie, PA, has approved a class action lawsuit settlement that could total more than $22 million in a case filed by thousands of landowners in the Marcellus Shale play against Range Resources Appalachia LLC over royalty calculations.

Kern River, which had noted low linepack in a bulletin board posting Monday morning, said its system lost an additional 50,000 Dth during that gas day. That prompted the pipeline to bar any shipper drafting in a critical notice Tuesday. Kern River said it will curtail physical flows if necessary and asked customers with due-pipe imbalances to schedule payback. In response to Kern River’s situation, Las Vegas-based Southwest Gas issued a Hold Burn to Scheduled Quantities notice effective Monday until further notice.

Southern California Gas lost 75 MMcf/d of injection capacity at its Playa del Rey storage field due to a retrofit of station injection piping. The restriction, which adds no impact to one that began late last week, is expected to last through March 28.

The attack of very cold weather that gave a strong price-boosting start to the cash market as the week began lost quite a bit of its bullish influence Tuesday. Even the previous day’s prompt-month futures gain of 13.9 cents and the lingering effect of widespread freezing lows were unable to keep cash numbers from mixed movement and staying close to either side of flat.

Chevron Corp., one of the few major oil companies without a visible presence in the North American shale plays, last week made up for lost time in a deal to buy Atlas Energy Inc. for an estimated $4.3 billion. The transaction, CEO John Watson told energy analysts, may be only the first.

Chevron Corp., one of the few major oil companies without a visible presence in the North American shale plays, on Tuesday made up for lost time in a deal to buy Atlas Energy Inc. for an estimated $4.3 billion.

The value of global oil and gas deals reached $85 billion during 3Q2010, but U.S. shale gas deals in the quarter lost the momentum from the first half of the year, according to a survey by Evaluate Energy Inc., which tracks global merger and acquisition (M&A) activity on a daily basis.

Still-moderate weather fundamentals for the most part didn’t seem to offer any rationale, but prices recovered some lost ground at all points Monday following an extremely weak weekend market. Without any new developments from previously mostly mild to cool weather, it seemed that at least a bit of “storm hype” must have crossed traders’ minds.

The value of global oil and gas deals reached $85 billion during 3Q2010, but U.S. shale gas deals in the quarter lost the momentum from the first half of the year, according to a survey by Evaluate Energy Inc., which tracks global merger and acquisition (M&A) activity on a daily basis.