Wyoming

Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming and the the Canadian province of Saskatchewan province signed an agreement Friday to combine their efforts in carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) research that is critical to their individual oil and natural gas producing jurisdictions.

Houston-based Genesis Energy LP is holding an open season through Dec. 22 to test support for a 140-mile-long crude oil gathering system in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin (PRB).

An appellate court panel in Denver said it wants to hear more arguments over an Obama-era rule governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public and tribal lands, and ordered the Trump administration and environmental groups to file responses over the matter by mid-November.

Ken Hendricksand Erin Campbell have been appointed to the four-member Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission by Gov. Matt Mead. Hendricks, a petroleum engineer, recently retired from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and would replace Tom Fitzsimmons, who has resigned. Campbell, who becomes state geologist on Nov. 21, would join the commission in mid-December, replacing Tom Drean, who is retiring as state geologist.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has urged the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to approve by year-end a proposed natural gas drilling project that could include up to 3,500 new wells with ultimate production of several trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas.

A QEP Resources Inc. subsidiary said Monday it would sell natural gas assets in Wyoming — including all of its assets in the Pinedale Anticline — through two transactions totaling $777.5 million.

Wyoming oil and natural gas regulators are attempting to head off well operators that violate state rules and forfeit their bonds by making it more difficult to allow them to operate under different corporate names.

Warburg Pincus-backed Rubicon Oilfield International Holdings LP, based in Houston, has snapped up Calgary-based World Oil Tools Inc. for an undisclosed amount to expand its downhole completions business. World Oil, established in 2000, makes specialty inflatable products and technology used in completions, and it works in North America’s unconventional basins, overseas and offshore. The deal would add inflatable packers, external casing packers and drill-stem testing technology to Rubicon’s portfolio. Formed in 2015, Rubicon designs, manufactures and sells/rents downhole oilfield products in more than 50 countries. Since its formation it has acquired other downhole products businesses including Tercel Oilfield Products, Top-Co Holdings and Logan International.

The administration of Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead confirmed that it had asked the Wyoming Power Authority (WPA) to drop its challenge to a FERC order allowing Commission staff to act on some filings while it lacks a quorum.