Operations

After months of trying to reach an out-of-court agreement with its creditors and bondholders, Warren Resources Inc. became one of the latest oil and natural gas producers to succumb to the commodities downturn, filing voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday.

Energy & Exploration Partners Inc. (ENXP), whose operations are centered in East Texas and Wyoming, late Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to give it flexibility to continue operations. The petition listed debt of $1-10 billion and assets of $500 million to $1 billion.

Regulators with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) are preparing to order another round of wastewater disposal wells to halt or curtail their operations, after a 4.7-magnitude earthquake — the second of such magnitude in less than two weeks and tied for third-strongest in state history — struck north-central Oklahoma on Monday.

The National Park Service (NPS) is proposing an end to regulatory provisions that exempt about 60% of oil and natural gas operations on national park land from oversight by the agency.

Struggling with heavy debt and deflated oil/gas prices, Houston-based Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York.

Struggling with heavy debt and deflated oil/gas prices, Houston-based Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York.

In an early test of last year’s Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that struck down parts of Act 13, a common pleas court judge has thrown out a conditional use permit issued by a township in Lycoming County that would have allowed drilling operations in a residential area.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) on Thursday began the federal regulatory process to spin off its California operations into an independent oil/natural gas exploration and production (E&P) company before the end of this year.

Amid a continuing dark cloud of legal and regulatory accusations of wrongdoing in its natural gas operations, San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) on Tuesday celebrated what it touted as an unprecedented amount of technical recognition for a U.S. natural gas utility.