Category: Shale Gas

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 […]

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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 […]

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OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 23 (UPI) — Energy company ONEOK said it plans to invest at least $480 million on shale natural gas processing infrastructure in North Dakota and Wyoming. ONEOK said it would invest between $480 million and $680 million between now and late 2016 to expand gas processing capabilities and associated infrastructure in the Bakken and Niobrara shale formations. A facility in Dunn County, N.D., would be able to process 80 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Bakken shale formation in the state. North Dakota lags behind other oil-producing states in gas utilization , but set a goal of capturing 90 percent of associated gas within six years. ONEOK said it’s built 11 new natural gas processing plants since 2010, including eight in the Bakken region of North Dakota. The company says its gas processing capacity in the region should increase by more than […]

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WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 22 09/22/2014 Range Resources Corp ., Fort Worth, has agreed to pay a $4.15 million fine, close five impoundments, and upgrade two others at its Washington County operations, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reported. The fine is the biggest against an oil and gas producer in the state’s shale drilling era, the agency said on Sept. 18. Violations included releases of contaminants, such as leaking flowback, that affected soil and groundwater, PDEP said. There has been no impact on drinking water from any of these impoundments, it noted. Under a consent order it reached with the agency, Range will begin to close its Hopewell Township 11 (Lowry), Cecil Township 23 (Worstell), and Kearns impoundments. Range also will continue the closure of the Yeager impoundment. It also must close the Hopewell Township 12 (Bednarski) impoundment by Apr. 1, 2015. DEP said the consent order also directs […]

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Siemens To Buy Dresser-Rand To Tap US Shale Gas Boom FRANKFURT, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Germany’s Siemens has agreed to buy U.S. oilfield equipment maker Dresser-Rand for $7.6 billion in cash, aiming to catch up with arch-rival General Electric in a booming U.S. shale gas market. The acquisition, which ranks among the biggest in the history of the German industrial group, will strengthen Siemens’ position in the United States, its weakest region, and focus the group more tightly on its industrial customers. Siemens embarked on a corporate overhaul in May dubbed "Vision 2020", seeking to make up ground on more profitable competitors such as Switzerland’s ABB as well as U.S-based General Electric (GE), while reducing its exposure to more cyclical consumer businesses where it has had limited success. As part of that drive, the group said on Monday it had also agreed to sell its stake in household appliances […]

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Natural gas rig in the Piceance Basin in Colorado. Fracking in water-stressed areas poses risks to energy producers and communities. Photo: Energy Tomorrow/Creative Commons 2.0. As more data emerge, shale gas increasingly appears to be in the cross-hairs of the water-energy nexus, and far too little is being done to defuse impending conflicts. While  hydraulic fracturing  (or “fracking”), the process used to unleash natural gas from shale deposits, has raised serious concerns about  groundwater contamination , less attention has been given to the added competition for limited water supplies the process can bring. Each fracking well can require up to 25 million liters (6.6 million gallons) of water. A new  study  by the  World Resources Institute  (WRI), a research group based in Washington, DC, attempts to fill this knowledge gap by overlaying known recoverable resources, or “plays,” of shale gas onto maps of water stress.   The results raise concerns. […]

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Bakken Oil Well Bakken Oil Well | Click to Enlarge The oil & gas renaissance in the U.S. has nearly catapulted the country to the top spot for oil production in the world, and most experts believe the U.S. will hit this target by next year. But is it possible that the country and the Bakken has too much of a good thing? When it comes to natural gas that may be the case. According to the BP 2014 statistical world energy review, the U.S. is currently the top natural gas producing country in the world at 328 Bcf/d. Over the past five years, natural gas production has grown over 20% in the U.S., thanks in large part to the shale revolution. But the price of natural gas has struggled to break $4/mmbtu, and oil companies in North Dakota’s and Montana’s Bakken Shale and the Eagle Ford Shale in […]

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study says that the drilling procedure called fracking didn’t cause much-publicized cases of tainted water, blaming contamination on leaky natural gas wells instead. The study finds that eight hydraulically fractured wells in the states of Pennsylvania and Texas leaked gas because the piping and cement seals in the wells themselves weren’t working properly. The process of pumping highly pressurized chemicals and water underground to get valuable natural gas trapped in shale has become highly charged as contamination complaints initially surged. Ohio State University geochemist Thomas Darrah and colleagues used certain elements to trace where the leaks came from. He said finding them in the wells rather than the fracking process, means contamination is more preventable and fixable. The study is published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, […]

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