GE’s $3 billion acquisition of Texas-based Dresser Inc. and the $422 million sale of T-3 are the latest in a flurry of energy industry assets sales. (Photo: Johnny Blood/Flickr)  More »

State regulator say natural gas drilling polluted rural drinking water. Cabot says most of the issues pre-date the drilling. Craig Sautner of Dimock, Pa., holds a jug of his well water outside an EPA hearing on hydraulic fracturing last month. (Press & Sun-Bulletin/Rebecca Catlett)  More »

The state of Alaska argues that the Obama administration has arbitrarily and unfairly blocked drilling in Arctic waters.  More »

Cabot Oil and Gas has been given a 60-day extension to provide Pennsylvania residents in Susquehanna County with a permanent solution to contaminated water wells. Under a modified consent order with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Cabot is required to provide temporary water services to residents until a permanent solution is implemented, UpstreamOnline said. [...]  More »

BP will sell exploration and production assets in Texas, New Mexico, Canada and Egypt to Apache Corp. for $7 billion, the companies said this afternoon. The deal followed BP’s announcement last month to sell up to $10 billion in assets to make more cash available for the oil giant as it faces a staggering price [...]  More »

Linn Energy has signed an agreement to buy more oil and natural gas properties in the East Texas Oil Field for $95 million, a the company announced today. The deal includes properties with a current net production of about 90 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Proven reserves are about 8 million barrels of oil [...]  More »

Natural gas midstream giant Spectra Energy will purchase the Bobcat Gas Storage project in Southeastern Louisiana from Haddington Energy Partners and GE Energy Financial Services for $540 million. The Houston-based company plans to invest another $400 to $450 million in the salt dome storage caverns to expand it by the end of 2015. Once online [...]  More »

The natural gas documentary Haynesville has been out quite a bit longer than the film Gasland, but hasn’t attracted the same sized audience as the decidedly anti-drilling movie. Maybe it’s because a positive take on natural gas is a harder sell (or taking a negative turn on anything energy-related is much easier?) Being off on [...]  More »

The Interior Department will hold a lease sale in August for oil and gas development onshore Alaska. The lease sale will be for about 1.8 million acres in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve area on the North Slope, Dow Jones Newswires said. The agency’s Bureau of Land Management will open sealed bids for the lease sale [...]  More »

Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to buy back $3 billion of its shares this quarter to ease the effect on shareholders of its takeover of XTO Energy. According to Bloomberg: The $25 billion purchase last month increased outstanding shares at Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil, by 416 million, or about 9 percent, David Rosenthal, vice president for [...]  More »

Analyst Jen Snyder of Wood Mackenzie said she expects U.S. gas prices to recover to between $6.50 and $7 per million British thermal units over the next few years as cost pressures grow. Snyder, speaking at the 2010 Energy Epicenter Conference yesterday, said service costs, competition with oil projects for horizontal drilling rigs and a [...]  More »

Ahead of the Environmental Protection Agency’s public meeting in Fort Worth today about a planned study of hydraulic fracturing and its potential impact on drinking water, some environmental groups of North Texas held a teleconference to commend the agency’s recommendation for a “lifecycle” study that reviews the whole process. But the groups, including the Sierra [...]  More »