Special

First quarter results of Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. improved over the year-ago period, thanks mainly to expansion of the company’s production base. Oil and gas production volumes both set company records, although low gas prices weighed on the Houston-based producer.

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

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has called the state legislature into a special session scheduled to begin Sunday (Dec. 11) to discuss, and possibly pass, a compromise Marcellus Shale regulatory reform bill as early as this week. The Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale (JSCMS), a 10-member bipartisan committee, has been working on legislation informally known as the Marcellus Draft Bill (MDB) for weeks. The JSCMS used a failed bill called the Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act, also known as SB 424, as the bill’s foundation (see NGI, Aug. 15). The shale gas industry is concerned by an amendment calling for operators to pay a $10,000 permitting fee for the first well drilled on a pad and $5,000 for each additional well well (see NGI, Nov. 28; Sept. 19). The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection also has proposed increasing horizontal drilling fees to $10,000 — up from the current $650 paid by all drillers — to fund additional inspectors (see NGI, Feb. 14).

Southern Union Co. has begun distributing proxy statements in preparation for a special meeting of shareholders Dec. 9 to vote on the company’s proposed acquisition by Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) (see Daily GPI, Aug. 8; July 20). Shareholders of record as of Oct. 11 may vote in person at the meeting in New York City or by proxy. Approval of the merger agreement requires a simple majority of Southern Union’s outstanding shares of common stock. Shareholders who directly or indirectly own 13.4% of the company’s stock already have voted in favor of the agreement. Southern Union’s board of directors also has unanimously recommended the merger’s approval.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) plans to hold a special meeting on Oct. 21 to act on draft natural gas drilling regulations, according to Executive Director Carol R. Collier. The proposed regulations would protect water resources of the Delaware River Basin when gas projects are developed and in operation. The DRBC received close to 69,000 comments on the draft rules, which originally were published in December (see Shale Daily, Dec. 10, 2010). The meeting, open to the public, is to be held from 1-3 p.m. in the Patriots Theater at the War Memorial, 1 Memorial Drive, Trenton, NJ. A public hearing at the meeting is not planned.

A bill that would increase horizontal drilling permit fees in West Virginia to $5,000 from the current $650 that all drillers pay was passed out of committee and sent to the full House Thursday afternoon.

The West Virginia Legislature’s House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Thursday on a bill that would make several changes to the state’s regulation of Marcellus Shale drilling, including instituting dramatic increases to horizontal permitting fees to fund a larger staff at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Joseph Martens, who was tapped by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday to lead New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), last year suggested the state wait until a federal study had been completed on hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) impacts to health and the environment before implementing rules for Marcellus Shale drillers.

EXCO Resources Inc. last week formed a special committee to consider a buyout proposal from CEO Douglas Miller of $20.50/share cash, the Dallas-based natural gas-focused exploration and production company said.