West

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.

Many people look back during the holiday season and reflect about how quickly the year has passed, but if “time flies when you’re having fun,” 2016 could not end soon enough for the oil and gas industry.

A judge on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that a dispute between a unit of Norway’s Statoil ASA and four counties over nearly $7 million in property taxes the company claims it overpaid must be handled in the county court system.

No matter what happens on election day next month, West Virginia voters will select another pro-energy governor, as both major party candidates have defended coal and touted natural gas during a blurry campaign that’s boiled down to which man can better manage those resources for the state.

FirstEnergy Corp. has started another project to expand electric power infrastructure in the Appalachian Basin to serve the region’s shale development, announcing Wednesday that crews were at work raising steel structures and pouring concrete foundations for a $40 million project in Southwest Pennsylvania.

Combined conventional and unconventional natural gas production in West Virginia increased healthily again last year, which also marked the first time the Utica Shale contributed meaningfully to the state’s volumes.

Contrary to the optimism some oilfield services companies have expressed about finding a solid labor pool once the oil and gas upturn begins, many former employees have no intention of ever returning, according to a survey by Evercore ISI.

West Virginia’s severance tax revenues for fiscal year 2016 came in $195 million below projections, capping what officials characterized as a brutal year for the state’s energy industries.