Shale Daily

Just hours before concluding this year’s first regular legislative session, the West Virginia House of Delegates on Saturday rejected a bill that would have allowed exploration and production companies drilling the Marcellus Shale and other shallower formations to pool landowners into units.

Sanchez Production Partners LP (SPP) is shopping its assets and operations in Oklahoma and Kansas. The company cited what it sees as ongoing basin consolidation in the region as the impetus for the move.

Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. said it will not file its annual Form 10-K on time, but it expects to file it by March 31. The Houston-based company said it also does not plan to host a conference call to discuss 4Q2014 and full-year 2014 earnings. Sabine also said it has retained financial advisors Lazard and legal advisors Kirkland & Ellis LLP to advise management and the board of directors on strategic alternatives related to its capital structure.

Two weeks after divesting all of its East Texas and non-core Louisiana assets to its master limited partnership (MLP), executives with Memorial Resource Development Corp. (MRD) said their company is now a pure-play exploration and production (E&P) outfit focused on redeveloping a legacy oil and gas field in Louisiana.

Two proposals aimed at limiting the reach of local government involvement in regulating oil and natural gas development are being debated in the New Mexico state legislature this week.

An Ohio Common Pleas Court judge has handed the oil and gas industry another victory in the ongoing battle between the state’s regulatory authority and local communities that want more control over operators by striking down a Cleveland suburb’s charter amendment that sought to ban drilling.

If the economic health of the Texas oil and gas industry were an elevator, its only direction would be down — down for crude oil prices, rig count, drilling permits and employment — and for the Texas Petro Index (TPI), which most recently has shed seven points, according to an economist who has been keeping score.

Basic Energy Services Inc. reduced its U.S. onshore stimulation services prices by 25-30% in February, 10% higher than concessions it already had made early this year, CEO Roe Patterson said Friday. The workforce is down by 14% since November and 1Q2015 revenue is forecast to be about 10% lower than previous guidance.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, would receive a 5% increase in general fund appropriations under Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s 2015-2016 budget.