Operating

A West Virginia city in the Marcellus Shale has enacted a 6% business and occupation (B&O) tax on natural gas companies operating within the city limits, reportedly to raise revenue to fix roads and bridges that could be damaged by drilling there.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has launched an enhanced natural gas safety technology available to the industry that it said would validate the maximum allowable operating pressure (MAOP) for safe gas operations. The MAOP Validation Calculator is the result of a four-year license agreement between PG&E and Coler & Colantonio Inc., a privately owned firm that specializes in, among other things, pipeline software and services. The technology is incorporated into a geospacial information system, or GIS, and the software performs calculations to validate the MAOP for each pipeline component. The calculator output allows for standardized report generation and the engineering analysis of MAOP validation issues.

Altoona, IA, will be home to the state’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling stop for long-haul trucks and other vehicles operating on LNG, following recent approval of a site plan by city officials.

The number of operating unconventional rigs increased by seven (1%) in the week ending Sept. 14 but was down significantly (140 rigs, or 14%) compared to last year, according to NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count.

Sioux Falls, SD-based NorthWestern Energy Corp. on Tuesday said it has purchased operating and nonoperating natural gas production interests in Montana’s Bear Paw Basin from privately held, Houston-based NFR Energy LLC.

An updated biannual report posted by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) shows that the state’s natural gas production saw a more than 40% increase in the first half of 2012 compared to the second half of 2011, and more than doubled in a year.

Midstates Petroleum Co. agreed to pay Eagle Energy Production LLC $650 million in cash and stock for all of Eagle’s producing properties, and both developed and undeveloped acreage, primarily in the Mississippian Lime oil play in Oklahoma and Kansas, the Houston-based producer said Monday.

Three days after reporting an upbeat financial and operating performance in the second quarter, Chesapeake Energy Corp. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday it was subpoenaed in late June by the Department of Justice’s Midwest Field Office antitrust division.

After a second quarter of strong production growth in the Bakken Shale and Anadarko Woodford, Oklahoma City-based Continental Resources Inc. said it is ahead of schedule on its five-year plan to triple production.