Marcellus

Despite higher oil and gas production in the Marcellus Shale, National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG) reported a 2% decline in profits during its fiscal fourth quarter, after the company set aside a reserve of $4.7 billion to possibly settle an ongoing rate case in New York State.

As Rex Energy Corp. completes multi-well pads targeting three shale plays in the Appalachian Basin, the company reported a 39% increase in production during the third quarter, part of which executives attributed to “quality midstream solutions” forged in the region.

Two weeks after Bluegrass Pipeline LLC launched an open season to test support in a pipeline to carry natural gas liquids (NGL) from Appalachia to Gulf Coast markets, another team officially joined the horse race on Monday.

Spectra Energy and Spectra Energy Partners Monday announced they have executed new long-term contracts to bi-directionally transport 650,000 Dth/d of natural gas on their Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) system to accommodate the growing manufacturing sector and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export market along the Louisiana and Texas coast.

Despite problems with their first well targeting the Utica Shale, executives with Magnum Hunter Corp. said the company plans to speed up leasing activity and deploy a second drilling rig in the play, based on encouraging results by their competitors.

Antero Resources Corp. in one year has more than doubled daily production from its Appalachian operations, but management remains in forward-thinking mode to prevent takeaway constraints from impacting output well into the future, CEO Paul Rady said Thursday.

A binding open season through Dec. 9 is gauging interest in capacity on the proposed 30-mile Liberty Ethane Pipeline to transport purity ethane from Majorsville to Houston, PA, and on to markets in North America and overseas, said MarkWest Energy Partners LP.

Because of the “pent up” supply of gas in the Marcellus and Utica shales, shipper interest in capacity on ANR Pipeline’s Lebanon Lateral 2014 Reversal Project was much greater than anticipated, said an executive with TransCanada, which owns ANR.

After a nearly three-year delay, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is preparing to begin a well inspection program before the end of the year.