Since

SandRidge Energy Inc. founder Tom Ward, the company’s only chairman and CEO since it was formed in 2006, was ousted last week by the board of directors, which said its decision was “in the best interests of the company and its shareholders at this time.”

Connecting the wells only addresses part of the problem with flaring of natural gas in North Dakota’s Bakken and Three Forks formations; it’s no help if there’s a lack of takeaway and processing capacity.

A research report from Goldman Sachs was touted Monday as further support for why the U.S. State Department should reject the proposed northern portion of the TransCanada Corp. multi-billion-dollar 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline stretching from Alberta Canada to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

Dave Hager, 56, who has been running Devon Energy Corp.’s exploration and production (E&P) program since 2009, has been promoted to COO, giving him responsibility for all operating areas and related corporate functions. Hager had been COO of Kerr-McGee Corp. prior to its 2006 merger with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Tony Vaughn, 55, will move into Hager’s former job as executive vice president of E&P. Vaughn has been senior vice president, exploration and strategic services. He joined Devon in 1999 after spending 12 years with Kerr-McGee.

Following an unsuccessful open season, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) has shelved plans for the Freedom Pipeline, which would have carried Permian Basin crude oil from Texas to California refineries.

Cheap U.S. natural gas contributed to a decision by European steelmaker Voestalpine AG to site a new plant outside of Corpus Christi, TX.

Thomas F. Darden has retired from the Quicksilver Resources Inc. board chairmanship and from his officer position effective Wednesday, the company said. He will remain on the board as a director and chairman emeritus and will continue to work for Quicksilver through the end of the year. He will be focused on pursuing a joint venture in British Columbia’s Horn River Basin, something that the Fort Worth, TX-based company has sought for some time (see Shale Daily, May 8). Darden is to retire from Quicksilver on Dec. 31 but will continue to advise the company on the Horn River development and other projects, the company said. W. Yandell Rogers was elected chairman Wednesday. He has served as an independent director since March 1999.

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. will sell its 40 MW natural gas-fired “CT II” generation unit at its mostly coal-fired Gillette Energy Complex in Wyoming to the City of Gillette for $22 million.

Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has powered the biggest increase since the 1970s in Alberta oil production from flowing wells outside the northern bitumen sands belt, according to the provincial Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB). Output from flowing wells jumped by 14% in 2012 to 559,000 b/d, and should average 593,000 b/d this year, according to the board’s annual report.