E&P

The tally of rigs plying unconventional basins held mostly steady from one basin to the next in the latest weekly census by Baker Hughes Inc. The Permian saw the exit of four rigs, making it the biggest loser for the week ending Friday (Dec. 4).

The tally of rigs plying U.S. natural gas plays is off 44% from one year ago, and that’s with a slight uptick of three units in the latest rig census by Baker Hughes Inc. for the week ending Friday (Dec. 4).

A former landman who worked for ExxonMobil Corp.’s XTO Energy Inc. office in Fort Worth, TX, has been sentenced to 63 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution for committing oil and gas mail fraud. Steven E. Fisackerly, 33, of Spring, TX, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, according to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Fisackerly worked for XTO from September 2008 to March 2012. He admitted that beginning in January 2009 and ending about January 2011, he “devised and ran a scheme to defraud XTO” by altering agreements for land in Harrison County, WV, federal prosecutors said. Fisackerly used a fraudulent company to route nine checks that XTO issued for bogus transactions that together totaled more than $1 million. District Judge Terry Means ordered Fisackerly to report to prison on Jan. 4. An XTO spokeswoman said the company had “cooperated fully” in the investigation.

A final oil/natural gas leasing plan released Thursday for the White River National Forest in Colorado effectively closes the possibility of any new drilling in the Thompson Divide area that has captured the industry’s eye for some time.

After nearly a year under the direction of a new administration, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) job hasn’t gotten any easier.

In an online interview prior to joining the climate change talks in Paris, California Gov. Jerry Brown reiterated his support for the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) by the oil and natural gas industry.

Ohio’s horizontal shale wells have produced more oil and natural gas through the first nine months of the year than all of Ohio’s wells produced in 2014, according to third quarter production data released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

Most global oil and gas companies are poised for dealmaking in 2016, but volatile commodity prices still pose a significant threat, more than 100 senior energy executives said in a recent survey.

To shore up its liquidity and maintain its pace during the commodities downturn, National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG) subsidiary Seneca Resources Corp. has entered into a joint development agreement (JDA) with an affiliate of Dallas-based IOG Capital LP to drill up to 80 Marcellus Shale wells across 10,500 acres in Northern Pennsylvania.