Made

If it’s difficult to remember the last time Devon Energy Corp. made a big acquisition in North America, most energy know-it-alls would be forgiven. The Oklahoma City-based super independent, then living high off the hog from its Barnett Shale winnings, in early 2003 paid $5.3 billion to buy Houston’s Ocean Energy Inc. (see Daily GPI, Feb. 25, 2003).

High hopes for budding overseas exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) dominate an ambitious economic growth forecast made Monday by British Columbia Premier Christy Clark. Of C$25 billion (U.S. dollar at par) in investment anticipated by Clark within 10 years, her Liberal government is relying on LNG for C$18 billion or 72% of the total.

Continental Resources Inc. on Wednesday made a $340 million pitch to buy Bakken Shale-focused Wheatland Oil Inc., a company controlled by Continental CEO Harold Hamm.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for a unanimous court in a decision that holds implications for natural gas and oil leaseholds, made clear last week that access to the courts is the proper response to the “strong-arming of regulated parties” by government agencies.

Poland’s technically recoverable shale gas resources are much lower than projections made last year by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), according to a report issued Wednesday.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for a unanimous court on Wednesday in a decision that holds implications for natural gas and oil leaseholds, made clear that access to the courts is the proper response to the “strong-arming of regulated parties” by government agencies.

The head of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that the agency has not made a final decision on whether to hike the onshore royalty rate to 18.75% from its existing 12.50%.

Devon Energy and its affiliates have agreed to pay the federal government nearly $3.5 million to resolve claims made by a whistle blower that the independent producer underpaid royalties owed on natural gas produced on federal and Native American lands, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Natural gas prices are going to stay low “for quite a while,” and producers are just going to have to deal with it; after all, it’s their fault, Southwestern Energy CEO Steven Mueller told a Houston audience Wednesday.