Scuttled

New York Gov. David Paterson’s proposed plans to lay off hundreds of state employees could be scuttled at the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)if permitting fees from new Marcellus Shale wells were dedicated to staffing, the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA) said Monday.

The economy and low commodity prices scuttled capital spending plans this year for scores of U.S. energy companies, but for many operators exploring and developing the natural gas-rich area that straddles a region covering East Texas and northern Louisiana, that’s not the case.

Onshore natural gas explorer Edge Petroleum Corp. and privately held Chaparral Energy Inc. Wednesday scuttled a merger plan citing “no reasonable expectation” that financing could be completed by the Dec. 31 deadline. The majority owner of Chaparral is co-founder Mark Fischer; Chesapeake Energy Corp. purchased a 32% stake in the company in 2006.

With its plans to explore for oil and natural gas in the Beaufort Sea offshore Alaska scuttled by a court fight, an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell plc has begun releasing contract workers and may disband its offshore fleet.

With its plans to explore for oil and natural gas in the Beaufort Sea offshore Alaska for now scuttled by a court fight, an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell plc has begun releasing contract workers and may disband its offshore fleet, the company said.

Stone Energy Corp. plans to reduce its exploration exposure and focus on lower-risk exploitation projects. The company, jilted in a scuttled merger earlier this year, is not seeking a merger partner at this time, management said Wednesday.

In the wake of the scuttled merger between Exelon Corp. and Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), Mike Morris, CEO of American Electric Power (AEP), thinks a “huge chill” has been put on mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in the utility sector.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, scuttled a watchdog group’s efforts to obtain records and documents related to the secret deliberations of the national energy policy task force.

Almost four months after its takeover bid of NewPower Holdings Inc. was scuttled due to unfavorable court rulings, Centrica plc announced last week that its subsidiary, Energy America LLC., has entered into an agreement to acquire the Ohio and Pennsylvania natural gas customers and other specified assets of NewPower for an estimated total consideration of $21.85 million. The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia accepted Centrica’s offer over Vectren Corp.’s late June offering of $16.8 million for the company’s Ohio gas customers (see NGI, July 8).