Western

WPX Energy Inc. plans to deploy two more drilling rigs to the five now running in Western Colorado’s Piceance Basin, which should add an incremental 1.9 Bcfe in natural gas-weighted output through the rest of this year, the Tulsa operator said last week.

WPX Energy Inc. plans to deploy two more drilling rigs to the five now running in Western Colorado’s Piceance Basin, which should add an incremental 1.9 Bcfe in natural gas-weighted output through the rest of this year, the Tulsa operator said Wednesday.

Randy L. Limbacher, former chairman, CEO and president of Rosetta Resources Inc., is taking the helm of Tulsa onshore operator Samson Resources Corp. Limbacher, who has 32 years in the exploration business, ran Rosetta from November 2007 until the end of February. He previously was president of exploration and production in the Americas for ConocoPhillips and worked at predecessor Burlington Resources Inc. for 20 years. “With positions in some of the best plays in North America, a dedicated team of talented executives, and the backing of leading energy investors, Samson is well positioned to begin its next phase of growth,” said Limbacher.

Two natural gas midstream operators in western Pennsylvania have agreed to improve their facilities after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said they failed to comply with Clean Air Act (CAA) rules to prevent accidental releases of flammable substances.

High costs have prompted Woodside Petroleum Ltd. to scrap plans for the proposed onshore Browse LNG Development at James Price Point (JPP) in Western Australia, but the company is leaving the door open to a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) development, among other options, to commercialize Browse Basin gas reserves.

An independent California-based geologist who has studied the Monterey Shale thinks it could eventually fulfill some of the hype surrounding its long-term reserves, but first it is going to take more serious geologic study and some small operators willing to take the risks that the big companies are not going to take.

Colorado state energy officials Thursday added new information surrounding a small hydrocarbon spill in the Parachute Creek area of the Western Slope. On Tuesday investigators focused on a valve box for a pipeline carrying natural gas liquids (NGL) away from a Williams Co. unit’s gas processing plant.

North Dakota lawmakers continue holding hearings and debating the merits of energy bills to create incentives for less associated gas flaring at the wellhead and to provide tax relief for oil and gas producers, a spokesperson for the state Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) told NGI’s Shale Daily Monday.

Colorado state energy officials Thursday night said a hydrocarbon spill in the Parachute Creek area of the Western Slope was essentially under control and there was no apparent impact on the creek, Todd Hartman, a Colorado Oil Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC) spokesman told NGI.