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Reliance Industries of India in Bidding War with Chevron to Buy Atlas Energy

India’s largest private sector company, and one of the world’s largest energy companies, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), is in a bidding war with Chevron to buy Atlas Energy. A primary motivator for both companies is the large number of net acres Atlas controls in the Marcellus Shale region. Just last year RIL and Atlas formed a joint venture, a deal that would have been worth $3.5 billion over ten years. Now that Atlas is on the block, RIL wants to tie the knot permanently. But another suitor has arrived and is vying for Atlas’ affections by offering $4.3 billion:
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Update: State Regulators Dispute “Findings” of Congressional Democrats Concerning Diesel Fuel Used in Hydraulic Fracturing

The Platts energy news service has already unearthed some problems with the statements made yesterday by Congressional Democrats Henry Waxman, Edward Markey and Diana DeGette that claim some energy services companies are injecting “millions of gallons” of diesel fuel into hydraulically fractured wells, violating the Safe Drinking Water Act. It seems (surprise!) some of the so-called facts they shared with the EPA are not quite accurate according to the agencies which actually regulate drilling in their states:
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Group of Investment Managers Target Drilling Companies Who Use Hydraulic Fracturing

godfatherA group of investment managers who belong to an organization called The Investor Environmental Health Network have banded together (some might call it collusion) to put pressure on energy companies who engage in natural gas drilling by using hydraulic fracturing. Their aim? To stop fracking of course, but that’s not what they say in their press statement. They’re just little ‘ole investors encouraging companies to “do the right thing” …
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Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Damascus Citizens for Sustainability Sue Delaware River Basin Commission over Exploratory Wells

Two anti-drilling “environmental” groups, The Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) and Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS), have joined forces in filing a federal lawsuit today against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) in federal district court in Trenton, NJ.  The anti-drilling groups are challenging the actions the DRBC took to allow some exploratory natural gas wells to be drilled “without DRBC review and approval and despite a Basin-wide moratorium on gas wells.”

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PA DEP Tests for Air Pollution at Gas Drilling Sites – Finds None

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) conducted air quality testing from August to October of 2010 at a number of natural gas drilling sites that use hydraulic fracturing in Susquehanna and Sullivan counties, including a Cabot Oil drilling site in Dimock, PA. The DEP looked for compounds associated with petroleum-based products that may have become airborne. They also looked for other compounds, like elevated levels of carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide.

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