nymex settlement

Natural gas is back. At least it is in Texas, according to the latest barometer of oil and gas activity in the state, which shows that higher wellhead prices have boosted the value of Lone Star state gas production this year through October by 36.5%.

EQT Corp. outlined a $2.4 billion capital expenditure (capex) budget on Tuesday, lifted by plans to resume drilling operations in Kentucky’s Huron Shale formation and intent on putting the $740 million it earned from selling its gas utility toward boosting liquids volume and further developing its expansive Marcellus Shale position.

FERC will celebrate its 1,000 Commission meeting Thursday with a lineup of former chairmen and a performance by a student from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

Chief Oil & Gas and two working interest partners have paid $500 million to Chesapeake Appalachia LLC to acquire MKR Holdings LLC, a deal that includes 130 MMcf/d of production, approximately 40 operated wells waiting on completion or pipeline, and about 75,000 gross-acre leasehold in Bradford, Lycoming, Sullivan, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, the privately-owned company said Wednesday.

Over the objections of Republican leaders, the Senate Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a two-year bipartisan budget deal that includes a treaty that would remove the ban on oil and natural gas development along the U.S.-Mexico boundary in the Gulf of Mexico.

Prices of natural gas for delivery Thursday inched higher across much of the country except for in the East, where prices dropped from a dime to $1 at most spots, and up to $10 at some often constrained points serving the New England market.

In an effort to reduce operating costs and emissions from oilsands mining in northern Alberta, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc has signed an agreement with Caterpillar Inc. to test a new engine and fuel mix using liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Steel manufacturer Nucor Corp. and its drilling partner, Encana Corp., have agreed to temporarily suspend drilling new natural gas wells, citing weak gas prices.

The Interior Department over the past couple of years has taken action, particularly in the offshore, to ensure that taxpayers receive a fair return on oil and natural gas produced on federal lands, but it has not taken similar steps onshore, according to a new report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).