Northern

SandRidge Energy will transfer a 13.2% interest in its Mississippian Lime play acreage in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas to an affiliate of South Korean investment firm Atinum Partners Co. for $500 million, the Oklahoma City-based company said.

Royal Dutch Shell plc on Thursday was awarded conditional approval by the Department of Interior to drill up to four exploratory wells over two years in northern Alaska’s Beaufort Sea, where it has invested more than $3.5 billion in leases and predevelopment.

June’s flood in and around the Bakken Shale play in North Dakota has been a setback for all the producers in the area, but it may not be as devastating as earlier reports indicated, MDU Resources Group Inc. senior executives said Tuesday during a second quarter earnings conference call.

Royal Dutch Shell plc on Thursday was awarded conditional approval by the Department of Interior to drill up to four exploratory wells over two years in northern Alaska’s Beaufort Sea, where it has invested more than $3.5 billion in leases and predevelopment.

So far its effort to reach outside the regulated utility structure with a new natural gas storage field in Northern California is not paying off for Portland, OR-based NW Natural, but CEO Gregg Kantor expressed confidence that things will turn around during a conference call Wednesday announcing second quarter earnings that were down quarter over quarter.

Prices were in modest rally mode at a large majority of points Wednesday as heat levels began to trend upward again in key northern market areas and what had previously appeared to be a benign tropical wave south of Cuba was designated as Tropical Storm Don in the afternoon as it headed into the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s only been two and a half months, but Range Resources Corp. said its decision to leave the Barnett Shale is already paying off.

Southern California Gas ended a high-linepack OFO Sunday. Northern California neighbor Pacific Gas and Electric had a systemwide high-inventory OFO in effect Sunday but canceled it Monday.

ANR began repairs Tuesday at its Portland (IN) Compressor Station in the Northern Fuel Segment (ML-7), which are limiting Defiance South-CTFP northbound capacity by 190 MMcf/d, leaving 919 MMcf/d available through Friday. Based on current nominations, it is anticipated that the reduction may result in the curtailment of IT and Firm Secondary nominations, ANR said.