E&P

UGI Energy Services Inc. has completed two gathering projects in northeast Pennsylvania that will give a boost to utility customers with locally-sourced natural gas and help operators move more of their production to sales.

Six years of turmoil were ended Friday with a federal-state settlement of the disputed oil/natural gas drilling leases on Colorado’s Roan Plateau along a pristine portion of the Western Slope near Rifle, CO. The deal provides for protections, some drilling, 17 of 19 leases by one company to be rescinded, and other leaseholders in a designated base area to hang on to their holdings.

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) on Tuesday proposed increasing the setback distances for oil and natural gas drilling to 500 feet from 350 feet and recommended landowner notification rules.

Following the one-vote failure of the Keystone XL Pipeline in the U.S. Senate, TransCanada Corp. CEO Russ Girling said Wednesday his company is in for the duration to overcome the high hurdles that still exist for the proposed $7 billion, 1,700-mile pipeline project from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.

After a four-hour public hearing on Tuesday, a township zoning board in western Pennsylvania delayed making a decision about a contentious ordinance passed by supervisors earlier this year that allowed Rex Energy Corp. to develop five Marcellus Shale wells near a school in the area.

With U.S. oil and gas producers continuing to do their thing, America’s energy security continues to grow, according to the latest U.S. Chamber of Commerce assessment.

The controversial TransCanada Corp. Keystone XL Pipeline project failed passage in the U.S. Senate late Tuesday, gaining a 59-41 favorable vote, but falling one vote short of a required 60 ayes. Earlier, the House had passed its version of the bill giving the green light to the project, which has been stalled by the Obama administration for several years.

A bill passed by the Ohio House of Representatives in May that would levy a 2.5% severance tax on oil and natural gas production from horizontal wells has stalled in the state Senate, but lawmakers are expected to take up deliberations again in 2015.

Although a de facto moratorium remains in place against oil and natural gas development in the Delaware River Basin, a proposed pipeline for Marcellus Shale gas that would cut across the basin needs to pass the muster of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC).