Preliminary

North Dakota’s Bakken Shale-driven oil and gas production continued to rise in May from April, according to the state’s Department of Mineral Resources. Preliminary results indicated growth in nearly all of 17 counties — particularly Dunn, McKenzie, Mountrail and Williams, where most of the drilling to date has occurred.

Several environmental groups and citizens are suing the Village of Painted Post in Steuben County, NY, over a contract to sell some of its water supplies to a unit of Royal Dutch Shell plc for its Marcellus Shale natural gas operations in Tioga County, PA.

A newly formed organization representing nearly 2,000 New York property owners in Tioga County, NY, has signed a preliminary agreement to develop unconventional natural gas wells using waterless hydraulic fracturing (fracking) — a technique that may allow them to bypass the state’s drilling moratorium.

A Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field office in southwestern Colorado has released a preliminary environmental assessment calling for 21 parcels and 24,324 acres to be included in an upcoming natural gas lease sale. The draft assessment pared an initial proposal to include 22 parcels and up to 29,811 acres, mostly in Gunnison County, CO, in the auction, which is scheduled to be held Aug. 9. Under the BLM program, obtaining the leases is the first part of a multi-step process in which each lease holder would have to obtain a drilling permit, which would entail another environmental assessment of the individual drilling plans for each lease. It is all part of BLM’s master development plan and its use of multi-well development to help manage federal lease development. Before any exploration and development work can start, however, there will be site-specific reviews and analysis completed as called for under the National Environmental Policy Act, BLM officials said.

A newly formed organization that represents about 2,000 New York property owners in Tioga County has signed a preliminary agreement with developers to stimulate unconventional natural gas wells using waterless hydraulic fracturing (fracking) that may bypass the state’s drilling moratorium.

Based on a preliminary count of votes, El Paso Corp. shareholders have overwhelmingly voted in favor of a merger with Kinder Morgan Inc. About 70% of outstanding El Paso common shares were voted, and of these more than 95% were in favor of the merger. El Paso CEO Doug Foshee said closing is anticipated in the second quarter. The company plans to file a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission with the final voting results as soon as they are available. The deal is moving forward with the reluctant blessing of a Delaware business court judge who recently admonished Foshee and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for “disturbing” behavior that led to the transaction (see NGI, March 5; Oct. 24, 2011).

Shareholders of El Paso Corp. Friday approved the company’s merger with Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) during a special meeting.

A Texas couple that has sued Range Resources Corp. for allegedly contaminating its drinking water with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on Thursday lost a bid for dismissal of the company’s countersuit, which alleges that the couple participated in a conspiracy to defame Range.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has extended an olive branch to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the dispute over preliminary results from two federally managed groundwater tests concerning contaminated natural gas wells near Pavillion, WY (see NGI, Dec. 12, 2011).