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Argentina and China lead shale development outside North America in first-half 2015

map of Neuquen Basin and Sichuan Basin, as explained in the article text As recently as last year, only four countries in the world were producing commercial volumes of either natural gas from shale formations (shale gas) or crude oil from tight formations (tight oil): the United States and Canada, and more recently, Argentina and China. Beyond these four countries, other countries have started exploring hydrocarbons from shale and other tight resources, but they are still short of reaching commercial production. The 2013 World Shale Gas and Shale Oil Resource Assessment , produced by EIA and Advanced Resources International (ARI), noted large shale deposits in China and Argentina. Exploration and drilling is already underway in these countries. For the last two years, China has drilled more than 200 wells, and Argentina has drilled more than 275 wells. Each country has the potential to significantly increase production of shale gas […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Northern England County Rejects Fracking Site

An English county government rejected one of two applications for hydraulic fracturing for natural gas on Thursday, setting the stage for a decisive vote on the drilling technique next week. The Lancashire County Council voted against allowing privately held Caudrilla Resources Ltd. to use horizontal drilling and fracking at the company’s Roseacre Wood site in northwest England over worries about the increase in traffic. County planning officials had recommended the application be rejected. The council’s planning committee now is set to decide whether to give the go-ahead for a second site, also in Lancashire, on Monday. That site had been recommended for approval by planning officials and was supposed to have been voted on Wednesday, but councilors decided to wait until Monday to consider legal advice. If approved, it would be the first site to be fracked in western Europe since 2011. Cuadrilla said it was disappointed but not […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oklahoma drilling regulator calls spike in quakes a ‘game changer’

A spike in earthquakes across Oklahoma is forcing the state’s energy regulator to urgently consider tougher restrictions on drilling activity, a spokesman said on Wednesday, calling it a "game changer." From June 17 to 24, there have been 35 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater in the state, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey. Particularly worrying for regulators, some of the recent quakes occurred in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, where there are no high-volume wastewater injection wells. The spike in quakes comes roughly two months after new rules governing the disposal of briny wastewater from drilling took full effect. Drillers were directed by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC), which regulates the oil and gas industry, to stop disposing wastewater below the state’s deepest rock formation, believed to be one of the main causes of the quakes, and to reduce the depth of wells that already go that deep. […]

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U.K. Panel to Decide on Fracking

PRESTON, England—A bare patch of land amid the wheat and barley fields and cow pastures of northwest England’s countryside has become the focus of a question vexing Europe: to frack or not to frack? This week, the hub of the debate is the Lancashire County Council, which heard from both sides Tuesday, and is expected to decide Wednesday whether to allow the first onshore hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in Western Europe since 2011. The controversial drilling technique has unleashed an oil and gas boom in the U.S. in the past decade, but it has proved politically toxic in Europe , where lawmakers have blocked it. Fracking, which uses a mixture of sand, chemicals and water at high pressure to crack open energy reserves buried deep in shale formations, has been on hold in the U.K. after a series of minor earth tremors followed the first well fracked here […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pressure mounts against British fracking

Din growing louder as debate over fledgling British shale natural gas industry moving closer to crucial phase. Photo by David Gaylor/Shutterstock PRESTON, England, June 23 (UPI) — British advocacy group Friends of the Earth said that, with the nation’s fracking debate in full swing, the interests of local communities should prevail. A local council in Lancashire is reviewing two separate proposals by energy company Cuadrilla Resources to explore for natural gas in regional shale deposits. The council in mid June recommended approval for a campaign with as many as four drilling sites and hydraulic fracturing. The recommendation was subject to restrictions ranging from hours of work to noise pollution. A second application was recommended for refusal because of the potential for an increase in traffic on the rural highway network. "Fracking could have a hugely damaging impact on Lancashire residents and their environment and cause more climate-changing pollution to […]

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EU Says Existing Gas Pipelines From Russia More Than Enough

LUXEMBOURG—Existing gas pipelines from Russia already more than meet the European Union’s existing and future needs, the European Commission said Friday, a day after OAO Gazprom OGZPY -1.82 % and several Western energy companies said they would double the capacity of a pipeline to Germany. The tentative agreement with Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A -0.17 % PLC, Germany’s E. ON AG EONGY -2.24 % and Austria’s OMV AG OMVKY 2.10 % would allow Gazprom to ship an extra 55 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe every year through the Nord Stream pipeline via the Baltic Sea and forms another attempt by Moscow to avoid Ukraine as a transit route. The EU currently imports about one third of its gas from Russia, with almost half of that coming through Ukraine. Moscow has been working to reduce its dependence on Ukraine as a transit country , arguing that Kiev, with which […]

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Exclusive: Gazprom building global alliance with expanded Shell

ST PETERSBURG, Russia Gazprom is building a global strategic alliance with energy major Royal Dutch Shell that will include asset swaps and allow the Russian gas giant to penetrate new markets, its chief executive told Reuters. Gazprom, the world’s top gas producer, said on Thursday that Shell and its long-time gas buyers in Europe – Germany’s E.ON and Austria’s OMV – had agreed to build two new Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic sea to Germany. In a rare interview, chief executive Alexei Miller said the agreement with Shell also foresaw an expansion of the firms’ joint $20 billion liquefied natural gas plant on the eastern island of Sakhalin as well as global upstream asset swaps. "Documents of such significance are signed only once every five years or maybe even 10," Miller said on the sidelines of Russia’s top forum for investors in Saint Petersburg. The deal with […]

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Energy Industry Is Gassing Down

Natural gas is flared off at a plant outside of the town of Cuero, Texas. U.S. energy companies are taking their foot off the natural-gas pedal, slowing down their production growth after years of furious pumping. In the past eight years, a combination of improvements in drilling techniques and high energy prices stoked natural-gas production to all-time highs. The boom quickly sent natural-gas prices to historic lows, but output kept rising because high oil prices made it profitable for producers to keep tapping fields that yielded both oil and gas. Now, the global collapse in oil prices has producers and analysts rethinking the gas boom, too. Both gas and oil prices are down about 40% in the past year, cutting the incentive to keep drilling. A flurry of recent forecasts from government and private-sector experts suggest monthly gas production will flatten and possibly even begin to decline in 2015. […]

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Oh US gas demand, where art thou?

In the United States, natural gas is having quite a year. Year-to-date, Platts unit Bentek Energy data shows natural gas production has averaged 72.4 Bcf/d, a 5.2 Bcf/d, or almost an 8% increase, from a year ago. This growth is impressive itself, but what makes it even more impressive is the growth has come while prices have been depressed and demand has lagged. For example, year-over-year: • Platts assessed spot prices at Henry Hub in June have averaged $2.65/MMBtu, which is more than a 40% decline from a year ago, when the June 2014 price average month-to-date was $4.59/MMBtu. • Baker Hughes shows US natural gas drilling rigs have fallen by nearly a third, from 320 to 222. • Baker Hughes shows US oil drilling rigs have fallen by over half, from 1,536 to 642. (This is important because associated gas from crude oil wells account for about for […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple