Resource

Atlas Resource Partners LP (ARP) has entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with subsidiaries of Canada’s Equal Energy Ltd. in the core area of the Mississippian Lime, a formation in Oklahoma and Kansas rich in oil and natural gas liquids (NGL).

Capping off a string of regulatory actions that have been favorable to the oil and natural gas industry — and somewhat embarrassing to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — the regulator has said it will delay the release of final air pollution standards for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for two weeks.

The challenges of developing oil and gas resources in unconventional plays and in the deepwater have raised the bar for geosciences and petroleum engineering professionals and heightened the importance of human resource (HR) management at exploration and production (E&P) companies, according to the latest survey from Schlumberger Business Consulting (SBC).

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. has closed the sale of energy marketing unit Enserco Energy Inc. to Houston-based Twin Eagle Resource Management LLC for $160-170 million. Twin Eagle obtained Enserco’s North American-based natural gas, power, coal and crude oil marketing operations. Enserco operations include crude gathering and marketing assets averaging 30,000 b/d through 12 owned or leased terminals; natural gas marketing with 8 Bcf of leased storage and 250,000 MMBtu/d of firm transportation; power marketing serving municipal and retail load; coal marketing and 35,000 tons per day of physical coal deliveries; as well as rail transportation contracts. The deal was announced by Black Hills in January (see Daily GPI, Jan. 20).

The coming to prominence of natural gas and oil resource plays in the United States has reshaped the outlook for the country’s energy future and reconfigured the view for producers and capital markets as well, speakers at a Houston energy conference said last week.

U.S. resource plays that are spewing out natural gas and oil have virtually cleared producer calendars of speculative drilling and made for an energy supply bounty that is becoming the envy of numerous companies around the world, speakers at a Houston energy conference said.

The coming to prominence of natural gas and oil resource plays in the United States has reshaped the outlook for the country’s energy future and reconfigured the view for producers and capital markets as well, speakers at a Houston energy conference said.

In response to low natural gas prices, Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Monday said it would “immediately” curtail 0.5 Bcf/d, or 8% of its current operated gross natural gas output, which is 6.3 Bcf/d. As much as 1 Bcf/d could be curtailed “if conditions warrant.”

In what it said was the first step to develop a new pipeline to move Marcellus Shale natural gas out of northeast Pennsylvania, Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP (PVR) has acquired an option to purchase an easement along a 28.8-mile long right-of-way corridor in Susquehanna County, PA.