E&P

Just hours before concluding this year’s first regular legislative session, the West Virginia House of Delegates on Saturday rejected a bill that would have allowed exploration and production companies drilling the Marcellus Shale and other shallower formations to pool landowners into units.

Sanchez Production Partners LP (SPP) is shopping its assets and operations in Oklahoma and Kansas. The company cited what it sees as ongoing basin consolidation in the region as the impetus for the move.

Two proposals aimed at limiting the reach of local government involvement in regulating oil and natural gas development are being debated in the New Mexico state legislature this week.

An Ohio Common Pleas Court judge has handed the oil and gas industry another victory in the ongoing battle between the state’s regulatory authority and local communities that want more control over operators by striking down a Cleveland suburb’s charter amendment that sought to ban drilling.

If the economic health of the Texas oil and gas industry were an elevator, its only direction would be down — down for crude oil prices, rig count, drilling permits and employment — and for the Texas Petro Index (TPI), which most recently has shed seven points, according to an economist who has been keeping score.

Basic Energy Services Inc. reduced its U.S. onshore stimulation services prices by 25-30% in February, 10% higher than concessions it already had made early this year, CEO Roe Patterson said Friday. The workforce is down by 14% since November and 1Q2015 revenue is forecast to be about 10% lower than previous guidance.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, would receive a 5% increase in general fund appropriations under Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s 2015-2016 budget.

Two bills that would affect development of the Marcellus Shale in West Virginia were nearing final passage in the West Virginia Legislature on Friday, but time was running out on the session.

Consol Energy Inc. said Friday it would reduce its drilling budget by another $80 million this year, revising its spending plans from a previously announced $1 billion to $920 million in reaction to depressed commodity prices.