Things

An appellate court in Pennsylvania has ruled that compressor stations fit the legal definition of “gas production” and therefore can’t be banned by localities where other aspects of natural gas production are already permitted.

Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s stock price may have reached its bottom, an energy analyst said Friday. However, things may heat up in the coming days after activist shareholder Carl Icahn revealed late Friday that his firm now owns a 7.6% stake in the company — and he wants four board members replaced.

Until the bell rang on Friday, things appeared to be looking up for Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s management team. Its decision to sell a half million acres in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin, which previously hadn’t been on the company’s list of publicly disclosed assets to sell, had been praised, with analysts noting that it might fetch up to $1 billion and help the company reach its capital commitment goals this year.

With six weeks of discouraging news trailing behind it, Chesapeake Energy Corp. managed to get away for the three-day Memorial Day weekend with things looking a tad brighter — in some corners, perhaps. The stock price got a gentle nudge on the news that activist shareholder Carl Icahn is now one of the biggest shareholders, and some analysts now think that the stock price may have hit a bottom.

Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly have begun considering House Bill 2399, which among other things would provide a tax credit to companies that create new jobs related to the Marcellus Shale.

In about 18 months the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) should be able to tell the energy industry, and everyone else, just how productive the Three Forks formation, which lies below the Bakken Shale, might be.

The first glimpse of Utica Shale productivity in Ohio makes two things clear: Chesapeake Energy Corp. is leading the way and it is producing a fair amount of natural gas.

The first glimpse of Utica Shale productivity makes two things clear: Chesapeake Energy Corp. is leading the way and it is producing a fair amount of natural gas.

The shale revolution — first in natural gas and then in oil — has placed the United States at the beginning of an energy system turnaround in the 21st century; however, if the country is to benefit from its new-found energy wealth, government will have to get out of the way, John Hofmeister, founder and CEO of Citizens for Affordable Energy, told a Houston audience Wednesday.