Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell was close to signing the state’s budget into law Friday, minus a tax on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. The appropriations portion of the budget, still being negotiated Friday afternoon, was expected to include a plan to lease more state forest land to gas drillers.

Range Resources Corp.’s gas processing capacity in southwestern Pennsylvania has been expanded to 60 MMcf/d with the completion of a 30 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant as part of the second phase of its infrastructure development in the Marcellus Shale play of Appalachia.

Range Resources Corp.’s gas processing capacity in southwestern Pennsylvania has been expanded to 60 MMcf/d with the completion of a 30 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant as part of the second phase of its infrastructure development in the Marcellus Shale play of Appalachia.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given an environmental nod to Chestnut Ridge Storage LLC’s proposal to convert a depleted natural gas field in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia into a high-deliverability, multi-cycle storage facility.

Exelon Corp.’s Pennsylvania gas and electric utility, PECO, saw natural gas consumption fall approximately 3.3% in 2008, including a 1.4% drop in December compared to December 2007, the company said Wednesday.

A geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University, who is a recognized expert on the Marcellus Shale, has increased his original estimate of the technically recoverable natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale by nearly eight-fold.

A geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University, who is a recognized expert on the Marcellus Shale, has increased his original estimate of the technically recoverable natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale by nearly eight-fold.

In a busy meeting Thursday the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) voted to investigate a proposed annual rate increase by Equitable Gas Co. and also unanimously approved the gas cost rate (GCR) increase requests from Valley Energy Inc. and Pike County Light & Power. The commission voted unanimously to investigate Equitable Gas Co.’s $51.9 million (10%) hike that would increase the monthly bill for an average residential natural gas customer using 7.5 Mcf per month from $142.63 a month to $157.14 a month. The PUC said it will assign the case to the office of administrative law judge for a recommended decision. The commission has until March 30, 2009, to make its final decision at a public meeting in Harrisburg. Equitable Gas provides service to approximately 258,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Pittsburgh and in portions of Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Fayette, Green, Indiana, Jefferson, Washington and Westmoreland counties. According to the company, the reason for the increase is to cover rising operating and maintenance expenses, as well as to recover costs of investments in the utility’s plant and investments to improve the quality of service for its customers. On the approved GCR increase requests, the commission approved a 42.1% increase in Valley Energy’s GCR from $7.8865/Mcf to $11.2083/Mcf and a 2.8% increase for Pike County Light & Power from $10.1715 to $10.4550/Mcf. The companies’ new GCRs go into effect Sept. 1.

Indigo-Energy Inc., a junior explorer that focuses on prospects located in the Upper Devonian sand formations of Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, plans to spend $686.4 million to develop about 135,000 acres in the Illinois Basin, an emerging natural gas play that straddles portions of southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky. The Illinois Basin covers about 60,000 square miles. Indigo, based in Henderson, NV, obtained the funds through a loan agreement with BJ Petro Inc., a Nevada corporation. Indigo also won mineral rights in Greene County, PA, and in Monongalia County, WV.