Category: Shale Gas

HOUSTON, Sept. 15 09/15/2014 Producers in the Appalachian basin will benefit unevenly from markets opening for natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales , according to a Canaccord Genuity analyst. Pipeline projects due on stream soon will alleviate a surplus in the southwestern part of the basin, wrote Karl Chalabala in a mid-September report on an updated supply-demand model. But the gas price will remain weak in the northeastern Appalachian basin until markets begin opening for supply there in 2016—unless operators ease drilling or curtail production. Chalabala said pipeline capacity will begin to exceed need in the southwestern Appalachian basin at the end of this year. Overall system expansions beneficial to northeastern operators won’t occur until the second half of 2016, according to an analysis that focuses on takeaway capacity by omitting projects that will move gas largely within the region. Most capacity expansions directly benefiting producers in […]

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Homes in a Texas community face worsening water contamination caused by nearby gas production, according to a study released today. The findings from an analysis by independent academics counter statements by driller Range Resources Corp. (RRC) and state regulators, who have said their evidence shows gas drilling wasn’t responsible for the presence of explosive methane in the homeowners’ water wells. Separate testing that found evidence of contamination from drilling at seven areas in Pennsylvania also was included in the study. “People’s water has been harmed by drilling,” Rob Jackson, professor of environmental and earth sciences at Stanford University and Duke University , said in a statement. “In Texas, we even saw two homes go from clean to contaminated after our sampling began.” The case in Weatherford, Texas, has drawn international media scrutiny, intervention by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that was later shelved and lawmakers’ scrutiny of the EPA’s […]

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (UPI) — Despite a nod for southern U.S. LNG exports, the application backlog needs clearing to strengthen U.S. leverage, the American Petroleum Institute said. API Upstream Director Erik Milito welcomed a decision from the U.S. Energy Department to allow for exports of liquefied natural gas from projects in Cameron Parish, La., and Marion County, Fla. "But dozens of other permits still face lengthy delays," he said in a statement Wednesday. "We urge the administration to accelerate this process and work with leaders in Congress who have shown they are ready to strengthen America’s position as an energy superpower." Bills that have passed through the U.S. House of Representatives tied LNG exports to overseas leverage in the foreign policy and economic arenas , a sentiment backed by API. The Cameron LNG project and the Carib Energy project in Florida were cleared for LNG exports to countries like […]

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Natural gas production from Ohio’s Utica Shale rose fivefold in the past year, according to data form the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Based on reports from gas drillers, the Utica was producing close to 1 Bcf/d at the end of the second quarter, up from 165,550 Mcf/d at the same point in 2013. Gas output from the play in Q2 also was up 32% from Q1. The number of Utica wells drilled at the end of the second quarter doubled year on year to 562, 90% of which were hooked up to sales, with 58 wells awaiting pipelines or processing capacity, DNR reported. Chesapeake Energy, which pioneered the play, was the top gas producers with 109,500 Mcf/d, or 11% of the statewide total. Chesapeake also reported oil production of 3,760 b/d from its Utica wells in the second quarter. Because Ohio doesn’t require reporting of natural gas liquids […]

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WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 8 09/08/2014 A severance tax and other election-year proposals potentially could dismantle Pennsylvania’s unprecedented natural gas production growth, the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association’s president warned. “From severance tax proposals of 5-10% to legislation to retroactively impose a $3 million/well ‘fee’ for every well that has been drilled on state forest land, it appears that some elected officials want to scrap the effective policies and regulations that have allowed Pennsylvania to become the second-largest natural gas producer in the US in 5 short years,” PIOGA Pres. Louis D. D’Amico said on Sept. 4. The proposals have come from Keystone State politicians from 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Tom Wolf to members of the state’s General Assembly from both parties, he said. “With natural gas production at an all-time high, a reasonable 5% severance tax would generate over $1 billion in 2015,” Wolf said in a Sept. […]

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Royal Dutch Shell PLC has made a natural gas discovery within the Utica shale in Tioga County, Pa. The Neal and Gee wells were respectively drilled to total measured depths of 14,500 and 15,500 ft with respective lateral lengths of 4,200 ft and 3,100 ft. Shell says the results are comparable to the best publically announced thus far in the emerging southeast Ohio Utica dry gas play. The Gee and Neal discovery wells extend the “sweet spot” of the Utica formation beyond southeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania, where previous discoveries have been located, and into an area where Shell holds a major leasehold position of 430,000 acres, the company said. Shell expanded its Utica acreage in Pennsylvania last month ( OGJ Online, Aug. 14, 2014 ). Producing for almost a year, Gee was drilled more than 100 miles northeast of the nearest horizontal Utica producer, and had an initial […]

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Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) ’s natural gas discoveries near the Pennsylvania-New York border indicate that the Utica shale formation extends hundreds of miles farther east than originally thought. Two gas finds in Tioga County, Pennsylvania , announced today by Europe’s largest oil company are more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) away from the epicenter of Utica shale drilling in Monroe County, Ohio . Shell, which has been selling gas assets in other parts of the U.S. to focus on its highest-profit prospects, said it owns drilling rights across about 430,000 acres in the discovery zone, an area five times the size of Philadelphia. Since the discovery of Utica four years ago, exploration has been dominated by a handful of domestic wildcatters such as Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) and Gulfport Energy Corp. Oil majors including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) were late to the race after initially assuming the formations […]

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Dominion , Duke Energy , Piedmont Natural Gas , and AGL Resources have formed a joint venture to build and own the proposed 1.5-bcfd Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The 550-mile natural gas pipeline would move Marcellus and Utica shale gas from Harrison County, W.Va., southeast through Virginia, with an extension to Chesapeake, Va., and then south through central North Carolina to Robeson County. The main pipeline would have a 42-in. OD in West Virginia and Virginia, and 36-in. OD in North Carolina. The lateral to Chesapeake-Hampton Roads, Va., would measure 20-in. in diameter. Dominion plans three compressor stations for the pipeline, one at its West Virginia starting point, one in Buckingham County, Va., and one near the Virginia-North Carolina border. The partnership, called Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, will own the pipeline initially proposed by Dominion as the Southeast Reliability Project. It is designed in part to meet demand identified in […]

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Rigs targeting natural gas in the U.S. rose to the highest level in five months after those drilling horizontally for the fuel gained in the Marcellus formation of the eastern U.S. Gas rigs jumped by eight to 338, the highest level since March 14, data posted on Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) ’s website show. The oil count rose by 11 to 1,575 after sliding by 25 last week, the Houston-based field services company said. The Marcellus formation, the nation’s biggest onshore gas play, added the most rigs, gaining five drilling horizontally for gas and raising its total count to a two-month high. The energy rig count is surging in the U.S. as producers use horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to draw record volumes of oil and gas out of shale formations from North Dakota to Texas. The boom has raised domestic crude production to the highest level in 28 […]

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