Utah

An environmental impact review on oil shale and tar sand plans in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming initiated earlier this year by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an “inefficient and unnecessary” exercise, according to one Shell Exploration and Production (E&P) Co. official.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is backing out of the Rockies to focus on Appalachia and the Midcontinent.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is backing out of the Rockies to focus on Appalachia and the Midcontinent.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is backing out of the Rockies to focus on Appalachia and the Midcontinent.

Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (HNR) has completed the sale of its oil and gas assets in the Uinta Basin of Utah to an affiliate of Newfield Exploration Co. for $215 million in cash, Houston-based HNR said Wednesday. The sale has an effective date of March 1.

Houston’s Newfield Exploration Co. has signed two separate agreements totaling $308 million that will add about 70,000 net acres to its unconventional oil and gas holdings in Utah’s Uinta Basin.

EXCO Resources Inc. plans to add to its Marcellus Shale portfolio under a $459.4 million agreement with Chief Oil & Gas LLC.

Chief Oil & Gas LLC, which in 2005 was the second largest natural gas producer in the Barnett Shale, is showing it can do the same in the Marcellus Shale, reporting that output in Pennsylvania has reached the 100 MMcfe/d mark from 42 wells.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Utah office said it sold 11 of 12 parcels offered in its latest quarterly oil and natural gas lease sale. The sold parcels total 9,195 acres of federal land administered by BLM’s Vernal, UT, Field Office. During the oral auction BLM received more than $1.25 million in bonus bids for the federal lease rights. In addition to the bonus bids, the sale netted $13,797 in rental fees and $1,595 in administrative fees, for more than $1.26 million in total revenues. Tendy Management LLC of Henderson, NV, submitted the highest total bid per acre at $560 on parcel No. 39, which contains 80 acres. The highest total bid per parcel was by Rosewood Resources Inc. of Dallas for $518,400 on parcel No. 56, which contains 2,160 acres. The average bid per acre sold was $136.10.