Scheduled

An attorney representing a Pennsylvania township that is challenging Act 13, the omnibus Marcellus Shale law, said the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) has no authority to review local drilling ordinances, and accused the agency of acting with “malicious intent” by doing so.

Dallas-based Bridger Logistics LLC, a division of Bridger Group LLC, plans to join Midland, TX-based Advantage Pipeline LLC in developing its Pecos River Pipeline project, which will transport oil from the Delaware Basin to markets in the Gulf Coast and Midland. The pipeline will originate near Pecos, TX, and terminate in Crane, TX, where it will connect to the Longhorn Pipeline — owned by Magellan Midstream Partners LP — and Centurion Pipeline LP’s Crane Station. Once fully operational, the pipeline will have an initial capacity of 150,000 b/d and consist of more than 75 miles of trunkline. Bridger Transfer Services LLC will develop lateral extensions, gathering stations, origination stations and truck offloading facilities. The pipeline is scheduled to be operational by 1Q2013.

The House Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider whether to subpoena five Interior Department officials to appear before the panel to respond to questions about the Obama administration’s actions leading up to a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in May 2010.

Maryland’s portion of the Marcellus Shale may be limited to only the two westernmost counties, but its development would benefit the entire state, Drew Cobbs, executive director of the Maryland Petroleum Council, told an audience in Hagerstown, MD, on Wednesday.

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.

The price for Utica Shale acreage is rising at a surprising clip if a lease agreement signed this week by the Board of Commissioners of Columbiana County, OH, and an agent for Chesapeake Energy Corp. is any indication.

A bill that would legalize hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in North Carolina and lay the groundwork for its regulation tentatively was scheduled for a second reading Wednesday in the state Senate, one day after clearing a key legislative committee.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has to sell “at least” $7 billion worth of assets this year to avoid a breach of debt covenants and a credit downgrade, a senior analyst with Moody’s Investors Service said Thursday.

A package of five conventional and unconventional properties in the northern Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin of Wyoming and Colorado is up for sale by Chesapeake Energy Corp. Gross acreage is estimated at more than 684,000 acres; net acreage totals about 504,000 acres, according to Meager Energy Advisors, the listing agent.