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Producers Will Find Ready and Welcome Market for Nat Gas in Bakken

A new polyethylene production facility in the Bakken shale could soon help oil and gas producers in the region reduce natural gas flaring in North Dakota, the Bakken Update said this week. Significant amounts of natural gas are wasted during flaring; estimates by the non-profit sustainability organization CERES are that as much as 30 percent of all natural gas discovered in the state is flared. That comes out to more than $100 million a month of natural gas that is just burned off, according to a July 29, 2013 Reuters article. Because the new polyethylene plant will use liquid natural gas in the production process, it creates a local need for the product, thus reducing the amount of natural gas that is currently being flared due to a lack of infrastructure to move the gas to the market. The North Dakota Industrial Commission, the state’s regulating entity for oil […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Chesapeake dumps Marcellus, Utica shale

Chesapeake unloads prime shale acreage in eastern United States for $5 billion. (File/UPI/Gary C. Caskey) OKLAHOMA CITY, Oct. 16 (UPI) — Chesapeake Energy Corp. said Thursday it was selling its Utica and Marcellus shale assets to rival Southwestern Energy Co. for more than $5 billion. Chesapeake, which has headquarters in Oklahoma, agreed to sell more than 400,000 acres in the Marcellus and Utica plays spread out over West Virginia and Pennsylvania. As of December, the company said the net proved reserves in the acreage was around 221 million barrels of oil equivalent. "Today’s announcement marks a major step in Chesapeake’s transformation and a dramatic improvement in our financial strength as we seek to maximize value for our shareholders," Chesapeake Chief Executive Officer Doug Lawler said in a statement. The Marcellus shale is the most productive basin of its kind in the United States. While production is below Marcellus, drilling […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Fracking Tied to Earthquakes in Ohio

4581 Votes Fracking Tied to Earthquakes in Ohio Another rare case of fracking-caused earthquakes has jolted Ohio. A new study connects some 400 micro-earthquakes near the town of Canton, in Harrison County, to hydraulic fracturing wells . The three wells operated from September through October 2013 in the Utica Shale. Ten of the quakes registered between magnitude 1.7 and magnitude 2.2, but the tremors were too deep to cause damage or to be easily felt by people, according to the study, published Oct. 14 in the journal Seismological Research Letters. The new study is the second report this year of fracking-linked earthquakes from drilling in the Utica Shale. The shale is a rock formation that is deeper and closer than the Marcellus Shale to the crystalline basement rocks where faults are more common. In March, scientists with Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) shut down drilling at seven Utica […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Report: Fracking study changed after intervention by NY State officials

A 2013 federal water study was edited to play down the negative effects of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” following a flurry of email exchanges between the authors and New York state officials, according to a report published this week by local political news website  Capital New York . The study, conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), had examined naturally occurring methane in water wells across the gas-rich Southern Tier, a group of counties located on New York’s border with Pennsylvania. New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who commissioned the study in 2011, has long maintained that he would only approve fracking if science shows that it can be done safely. But someenvironmental experts are accusing the Cuomo administration of meddling with the study in order to blunt the impact of a number of politically inconvenient findings — a move that would enable him to move forward with controversial energy policies.  Seth […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Petronas wary of Canadian LNG decisions

Malaysian energy company Petronas mulls fate of LNG project slated for western Canadian coast. (UPI/Gary C. Caskey) VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 7 (UPI) — Malaysian energy company Petronas said Tuesday it may have to suspend plans to develop a Canadian liquefied natural gas project because of fiscal uncertainty. Members of the government in British Columbia are debating tax and regulatory policies on planned West Coast LNG projects. Petronas said it was encouraged by support thus far from legislatures in the province for the company’s Pacific Northwest LNG project, but expressed reservations because of the lack of a clear fiscal framework. With falling energy prices, Petronas President Tan Sri Dato’ Shamsul Azhar Abba said his company needs to hedge its bets on its project investments. Potential regulatory policies in Canada could threaten the competitiveness of the western LNG project. "This is further exacerbated by preliminary project costs, which indicates cost […]

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New York doesn’t like fracking, NRDC finds

Advocacy group finds widespread opposition to hydraulic fracturing in New York. (UPI/Kevin Dietsch) NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (UPI) — Those taking part in a survey commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council said they support a fracking ban in New York, the group said Tuesday. "People here know that fracking is a snake oil cure for economic woes, one that comes with steep costs — in the form of water pollution, air contamination, health issues and destroyed communities," advocacy director Kate Sinding said in a statement. A survey of 802 likely voters in September found nearly 80 percent supported a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the state. New York hosts a part of the Marcellus shale formation , one of the premier shale gas basins in the United States. There’s a current state moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. The Court of Appeals in Albany in July ruled in two separate […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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London allays land value concerns with fracking

British farmers want protection against land value damage from fracking. (UPI Photo/Brian Kersey) LONDON, Oct. 6 (UPI) — There are few reasons to think advancing the shale natural gas agenda in the United Kingdom will hurt land values, a government spokesman said Monday. The British shale natural gas campaign is in its infancy, though the government said imports could be reduced dramatically if the fledgling sector succeeds . The British National Farmers Union, which represents the business interests of nearly 50,000 groups across the agricultural sector, says land values could be reduced simply because of the negative attitudes toward hydraulic fracturing. A spokesman for the British Department of Energy and Climate Change said other sectors of the economy are seeing few adverse impacts from underground cables or other infrastructure associated with conventional energy. "Of over half a century of oil and gas production in the United Kingdom, there has […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The Great Natural Gas Grab

Any power utility executive will tell you that the industry has been burned by unexpected natural gas price spikes a number of times over the past 10 years. In some cases, regulators refused to allow the utility to pass on the fuel cost to ratepayers, and investors took the hit in the form of lower earnings. Follow up: While this does not happen often, when there is widespread consumer outcry over high electric bills as a result of natural gas price spikes, known in the industry as the “French Revolution effect,” the relationship with regulators can become so contentious as to materially undermine the utility’s earnings profile over a period of years. That’s why recent moves by various utilities to develop shale gas pipelines, buy production assets, or even lock in long-term, low-priced natural gas with producers should put those firms in a more favorable light among investors. These […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Europe Skirting Freeze Preserves Gas Amid Ukraine Crisis

Europe will have another mild month in October, preserving the region’s fuel reserves as it braces for a winter with the threat of natural gas supply disruptions. All eight meteorologists surveyed by Bloomberg projected higher-than-normal temperatures for most parts of Europe, with Germany and Poland the warmest relative to normal. Levels exceeded the average last month for most of the continent, according to in Gaithersburg, Maryland . Warmer weather may slow declines in Europe’s record gas stores. Most countries will be able to meet normal levels of gas demand if a conflict between Russia , which meets more than 30 percent of Europe’s demand, and Ukraine halts flows from the east for three months, according to the Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne, Germany . “If above average temperatures continue, it will slow down storage withdrawals during the heating season,” James Brabben, an analyst at Cornwall […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple