Marcellus

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. agreed to purchase the remaining mineral rights of bankrupt aluminum producer Ormet Corp. in Monroe County, OH, and Wetzel County, WV, for $22.3 million, according to documents filed in a Delaware bankruptcy court last week.

In response to customer interest, TransCanada Corp.’s ANR Pipeline has proposed a project to connect its system with Utica/Marcellus shale gas, enabling it to access multiple markets downstream of the ANR system.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is considering examining the link between horizontal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and seismic activity after Ohio recently tied a series of small earthquakes to stimulation operations at a well near the state border and issued new permitting requirements for wells near fault lines.

Warren Resources Inc. said Monday that it had acquired all of Colorado-based Citrus Energy Corp.’s Marcellus Shale assets in northeast Pennsylvania in a $352.5 million deal that will find privately-held Citrus folding into Warren’s operations.

Vantage Energy Inc., a company focused on the Barnett and Marcellus shales, hopes to raise up to $400 million through an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange, according to documents filed Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Rice Energy Inc.on Monday reinforced its position in southwest Pennsylvania and added to an inventory focused strictly on two areas in the Appalachian Basin, announcing a purchase and sale agreement to acquire 22,000 net acres in Greene County, PA, from a Chesapeake Energy Corp. subsidiary for $336 million.

The family of a subcontractor killed by an explosion at a well pad operated by Chevron Appalachia LLC in southwest Pennsylvania in February (see Shale Daily, Feb. 11) filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company last month in Allegheny County court in Pittsburgh.

An investigation into the cause of a large fire last weekend at a Statoil ASA drilling site in Monroe County, OH, near the West Virginia state line continued on Thursday. Cleanup efforts were expected to last several days, said an Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) spokesman, Thursday.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. and former subsidiary Access Midstream Partners LP cheated Pennsylvania landowners of more than $5 billion in natural gas and oil royalties through inflated and unreasonable fees, a class action lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania is claiming.