Mesa

Idaho’s Department of Lands (IDL) has started the process for the state’s first audit of oil and natural gas wells operated by Texas-based Alta Mesa Holdings LP, the lone producer in a state that realized its first production only three years ago.

A Texas jury last week awarded T. Boone Pickens and his company, Mesa Petroleum Partners LP, up to $146 million after ruling that Permian Basin operators conspired to cheat the oil magnate out of well ownership interests in West Texas.

In response to proposals from state lands officials, the Idaho legislature recently passed three measures to update oversight of oil and natural gas development.

In response to proposals from state lands officials, the Idaho legislature recently passed three measures to update oversight of oil and natural gas development.

Idaho lawmakers last Tuesday advanced four bills to alter rules covering oil and natural gas development in anticipation of upcoming growth in what is now an industry in its infancy in the state.

A private equity fund sponsored by oil industry stalwart T. Boone Pickens has committed $75 million to a joint venture that would provide natural gas produced at the wellhead to power onsite drilling services.

Under a settlement of a pending court case, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office in northwestern Colorado has agreed to reevaluate air quality impacts on 34 authorized, but not yet permitted, oil and natural gas drilling projects in the western part of the state.

A pioneering firm in California’s ill-fated competitive retail electricity market, Costa Mesa, CA-based Commerce Energy Group Inc., finds itself mired in a sea of red ink as it compiles its fiscal 2008 results, selling off a Houston-based energy consulting firm it acquired four years ago after announcing earlier this year that it was cutting about one-third of its work force.

A pioneering firm in California’s ill-fated competitive retail electricity market, Costa Mesa, CA-based Commerce Energy Group Inc., is mired in a sea of red ink as it compiles its fiscal 2008 results, selling off a Houston-based energy consulting firm it acquired four years ago and announcing earlier this year that it was cutting about one-third of its work force.