Consol Energy Inc., Pittsburgh, will be split into a coal company and a natural gas exploration and production company focused on the Marcellus and Utica shale plays of the Appalachian basin. Source: News

US House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) released a new draft of proposed legislation to overhaul federal lands energy policy late on Oct. 31. The committee’s Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, which discussed two earlier drafts at hearings in October, will examine this one on Nov. 7. Source: News

ExxonMobil Corp. agreed to spend about $300 million for new air pollution control and monitoring equipment at five petrochemical plants in Texas and three in Louisiana.   Source: News

US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator E. Scott Pruitt issued a directive on Oct. 31 aimed at ensuring that any member of an EPA federal advisory committee is independent and free of any real, apparent, or potential interference with his or her objectivity on matters the committee considers. Source: News

Sydney and Port Moresby-based Oil Search Ltd. has spread beyond Papua New Guinea to buy into oil permits in Alaska west of the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Source: News

Chevron Australia has shipped its first cargo of LNG from the Wheatstone natural gas project in Western Australia. Source: News

Nexen Petroleum UK Ltd. let a contract to Maersk Drilling to drill three wells with options for nine additional wells at Buzzard oil field in the UK North Sea. The contract is for the Buzzard Phase II development. Drilling is expected to start around July 2018. Source: News

Ineos Shale has expanded its onshore exploration and development license area in the UK with an acquisition from Total E&P Ltd. Source: News