Marcellus

The proposed Bluegrass Pipeline lacks the authority to impose eminent domain through Kentucky to build a natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline, the state’s top environmental regulator said last week.

The drilling rights to an estimated 13,000 acres in New York’s Southern Tier will be released and litigation dropped as part of a major settlement reached Monday by Chesapeake Energy Corp. and about 200 landowners.

A nonpartisan policy research group in Pennsylvania is doubling down on its assertion that the state would be better served by a severance tax on oil and gas, adding that Pennsylvania is getting “shortchanged” by the impact fee under Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law.

A unit of Chesapeake Energy Corp. has won a victory in the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit about its rights to drill natural gas wells and use open waste pits on private property because the operator had all of the needed permits in place from West Virginia regulators.

U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz of Jenkintown, PA, who has declared her candidacy for the gubernatorial race in 2014, said she would enact a 5% severance tax on natural gas if elected, adding that over a decade such a tax could generate $13.2 billion in revenue for the state.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is awaiting approval by the courts of a proposed $7.5 million settlement to resolve claims that a unit improperly charged Pennsylvania leaseholders post-production fees, a spokesman said Tuesday.

More than one year after creating a subcommittee to study hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and develop a consensus for best practices, ASTM International has proposed a new standard for data management and reporting that would cover oil and gas operations in shale plays.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has approved a Sunoco Pipeline LP request to abandon a portion of its petroleum products pipeline transportation service in the state, moving Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s plans for the Mariner East pipeline project one step closer to fruition.

Citing the quality of Range Resources Corp.’s reserve base, Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday upgraded the Houston-based company’s corporate family rating to “Ba1” from “Ba2” and its senior subordinate rating to “Ba2” from “Ba3.”