More

Federal and state officials concede there was a “miscommunication” between them over plans by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to put more than 4,000 acres of a state forest in Ohio up for oil and gas leasing, and the sale has been put on hold.

Questar Corp.’s exploration and production subsidiary on Monday agreed to pay $106.4 million to bolt-on more natural gas wells to an existing leasehold in Wyoming.

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) has agreed to sell more water to Antero Resources for oil and gas drilling in the Utica Shale.

NGL Energy Partners LP has acquired the assets of High Roller Wells LLC’s Big Lake SWD No. 1 Ltd., a Texas limited partnership. The Big Lake acquisition expands NGL’s water services business by adding a high-capacity, strategically located, oil and gas water disposal facility to its portfolio of water treatment and gathering infrastructure. The acquisition brings an 25,000 barrels of disposal capacity in the growing Permian Basin in West Texas, the company said.

Gastar Exploration Ltd. is selling about 76,000 net acres in Kingfisher and Canadian counties in Oklahoma for $62 million and also agreed to swap acreage with the undisclosed buyer so that both might concentrate their positions, the company said Tuesday.

As of Monday, Norway’s Statoil has taken over operatorship of the eastern portion of its Eagle Ford Shale assets that it has held in a 50-50 joint venture (JV) since 2010 with Talisman Energy USA Inc.

A subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc has signed a second, six-month extension that gives it more time to decide whether to purchase property in western Pennsylvania that could ultimately be used for a “world scale” ethane cracker in the heart of the Marcellus Shale region.

Global deepwater drilling activity is going on a rampage, with spending set to more than double over the coming decade, according to Wood Mackenzie.

The House Friday passed legislation that would open more federal waters to oil and natural gas exploration and production, but the bill has next to no chance of advancing in the Senate and being signed into law by President Obama.