E&P

The $2.89 billion merger of C&J Energy Services Inc. and the completions arm of Nabors Industries Ltd. has been halted temporarily so that C&J may shop for other bids, a Delaware Chancery Court ruled Monday.

Nuverra Environmental Solutions has signed a contract to build a 150-mile water pipeline and provide related services for ExxonMobil Corp.’s North Dakota operations in McKenzie County.

Aux Sable Canada LP has clinched its second agreement this year with Encana Corp. to process rich natural gas from the Duvernay Shale.

Two Utica Shale discovery wells drilled by Royal Dutch Shell plc in north-central Pennsylvania have piqued interest in the formation’s potential in a part of the Appalachian Basin that’s more than 100 miles northeast of the nearest horizontal Utica operator and more than 300 from the play’s sweet spot in eastern Ohio.

The Permian Basin affiliate of American Energy Partners LP (AELP) said Monday it is paying $440 million for 14,000 net acres in Reagan County, TX, which are producing 1,400 boe/d.

With production continuing to outpace takeaway infrastructure in the Bakken oil/gas boom, the North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC) has launched an easement information resource for landowners and land agents, hoping to streamline the rights-of-way process for pipeline permitting (see Shale Daily, Oct. 2).

A coalition pushing for separating all liquids from Bakken crude oil supplies is taking its case to lawmakers, firefighters and emergency managers in North Dakota, pushing the process known as “stabilization,” or stripping of natural gas liquids (NGL).

FERC has started to prepare its environmental impact statement (EIS) for Energy Transfer Partners LP’s (ETP) Rover Pipeline by gathering input from the public and other interested stakeholders in a series of public meetings in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, where the project will be built.

A subsidiary of J-W Energy Co., a privately-held exploration and production (E&P) company based in Dallas, said it has acquired oil and natural gas properties in northern Louisiana from Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd., a move that will increase its production totals and proven reserves.