Shale Daily

Former Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) chairman David Spigelmyer has been named as the organization’s president following a two-month search process, MSC said Tuesday.

Tom Ward, who co-founded Chesapeake Energy Corp. and then went on to create SandRidge Energy Inc. before being forced out earlier this year, is back in the game with a new Oklahoma City-based exploration and production company.

BHP Billiton Inc. is selling a portion of its Permian assets in the Delaware and Midland basins in two separate packages representing 250,000 acres combined, as it high-grades its West Texas holdings.

Ultra Petroleum Corp. dipped its toe into the oil patch Monday, signing an agreement with an undisclosed seller to acquire oil-producing properties in northeast Utah, in the Uinta Basin, for $650 million, the company said Monday.

In the first test of new statewide oil and natural gas drilling chemical disclosure rules established last year, the Colorado Oil/Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) will flex its regulatory muscles soon in pending enforcement activity (Rule 205A) involving 11 operators.

As part of a strategic review aimed at forming a smaller, more profitable company, Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s (Oxy) board of directors on Friday authorized pursuit of selected asset sales, including potentially some overseas and Midcontinent assets, alongwith a portion of a general partner interest in Plains All American Pipeline (PAAP).

Devon Energy Corp. has agreed to throw in an estimated $4.8 billion of U.S. midstream assets in Texas and Oklahoma and 800,000 net acres to form a partnership with Crosstex Energy Inc.’s assets in the Marcellus, Utica, Barnett, Eagle Ford and Haynesville shales, Permian Basin and the Gulf Coast, to create a fee-based service that initially would extend 7,300 miles and offer 3.3 Bcf/d net capacity.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Noble Energy Inc. have swapped a combined 100,000 net acres in the Greater Wattenberg Field in northern Colorado, leaving both companies with more contiguous acreage positions in the liquids-rich play.

Halliburton Co., the largest pressure pumper in North America, is, like its competitors, seeing better drilling efficiencies in the onshore. But even with old equipment going out and new equipment coming in, there likely will be an oversupplied market until late 2014 and possibly into 2015, CEO Dave Lesar said Monday.