West

The Department of Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering moving its headquarters from Washington, DC, to a western state, according to elected officials and others in Colorado who attended a forum with the deputy secretary last week.

West Virginia’s natural gas industry is “anxiously awaiting” Republican Gov. Jim Justice’s signature on co-tenancy legislation that would modernize the mineral law and better accommodate unconventional development in the state.

U.S. land permitting is off to a hot start in November, standing at 2,106 as of last Friday (Nov. 10), but a seasonal slowdown may temper year-end results, Evercore ISI said Tuesday.

Combined conventional and unconventional natural gas production in West Virginia increased again last year, albeit at a lower rate than in years past, according to data from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

In a critical step to furthering petrochemical development in the Appalachian Basin, a team of researchers has concluded after a one-year study that there are multiple options for underground natural gas liquids (NGL) storage in various formations throughout the region.

Republican leaders in the West Virginia legislature have formed an interim committee to explore more ways the state can attract and increase shale gas development.

The latest version of a bill that would allow West Virginia’s natural gas producers to gather mineral owners into a large tract of land to better block-up acreage positions for horizontal drilling has been sent to the state Senate floor for consideration.

The West Virginia House Judiciary Committee has rewritten a bill that would have exempted 29,000 oil and natural gas industry storage tanks from a 2014 law aimed at better protecting public water supplies.

The expiring January natural gas futures contract is set to open 5 cents lower Wednesday morning at $3.71 as traders tinker with the timing of anticipated market-moving cold next week. Overnight oil markets were mixed.