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Oettinger: Shale gas could meet 10 percent of EU demand

Shale could eventually meet about 10 percent of the energy demand among European nations, European Energy Commissioner said. Oettinger said companies with reservations about hydrualic fracturing, the controversial drilling practice dubbed fracking, should keep all options on the table. "I estimate that Europe has the potential to secure about a tenth of our needs this way in the long term," he said Sunday . Some countries in Eastern Europe are examining their shale natural gas potential. Other countries in Western Europe, however, have placed moratoriums on the controversial drilling practice. Shale efforts in Great Britain, meanwhile, are in their infancy. European leaders are looking for ways to break the Russian grip on the region’s energy sector. Russia meets about 20 percent of Europe’s demand for gas. Oettinger in May said members of the European Union should develop stronger energy partnerships to avoid falling victim to "political and commercial blackmail." […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Williams Strikes Nearly $6 Billion Deal to Expand Shale Oil, Gas Holdings

Williams Cos. agreed to pay nearly $6 billion to expand its ownership of Access Midstream Partners LP, a move aimed at increasing the natural-gas pipeline company’s presence in areas with growing energy output from shale formations. Under the deal, Williams would acquire from Global Infrastructure Partners II the remaining 50% of the privately held general-partner interests in Access Midstream that the Tulsa, Okla., company didn’t already own. Williams also would acquire 55.1 million of Access’s limited-partner units, bringing William’s stake in the limited partnership to 50%. At the close of trading Friday, the limited-partner units had a market value of $3.6 billion. Access gathers natural gas and natural-gas liquids pumped from wells in Texas, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, processes them and delivers them to larger pipelines, a business that Williams said it expected would grow rapidly. Access, which is based in Oklahoma City, was formed in 2009 as Chesapeake Midstream […]

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Cuadrilla Drilling Application Accepted by Lancashire Council

UK-focused shale gas firm Cuadrilla Resources is a step closer to beginning fracking operations in the northwest of England after Lancashire County Council formerly validated and accepted an application to drill in the county, the firm announced Wednesday. The planning application, to drill up to four shale gas exploration wells at Preston New Road, and its accompanying environmental statement is now accessible to the public. Cuadrilla said the environmental statement details the findings of an "extensive" environmental impact assessment of the sites, which was carried out by experts at independent consultant Arup. Arup Project Director Des Correia commented in a statement: "The work we’ve undertaken for both the environmental impact and environmental risk assessments has been tremendously comprehensive. We’ve been using best practice standards throughout our work and we’ve covered a full exploration life-cycle as well as considering cumulative impacts in both our scope and analysis work. “Our approach […]

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McClendon’s Firm To Buy $4.25B Of US Shale Assets

American Energy Partners LLP, the company started by Aubrey McClendon after he was pushed out as CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp, said it would acquire shale oil and gas assets in Texas, Ohio and West Virginia for $4.25 billion. American Energy said it would enter Texas’s Permian Basin by acquiring about 63,000 net acres of production leases from Enduring Resources LLC for $2.5 billion. The deals in Ohio and West Virginia are worth $1.75 billion. McClendon, who co-founded Chesapeake in 1989, left the company in April last year after clashes with the board over spending and a series of Reuters investigations that led to civil and criminal probes on the company. Since leaving Chesapeake, McClendon has raised more than $4 billion in cash and financing to invest in North American shale formations, mainly in Ohio’s Utica region. Oklahoma City-based American Energy struck deals […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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McClendon's Firm To Buy $4.25B Of US Shale Assets

American Energy Partners LLP, the company started by Aubrey McClendon after he was pushed out as CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp, said it would acquire shale oil and gas assets in Texas, Ohio and West Virginia for $4.25 billion. American Energy said it would enter Texas’s Permian Basin by acquiring about 63,000 net acres of production leases from Enduring Resources LLC for $2.5 billion. The deals in Ohio and West Virginia are worth $1.75 billion. McClendon, who co-founded Chesapeake in 1989, left the company in April last year after clashes with the board over spending and a series of Reuters investigations that led to civil and criminal probes on the company. Since leaving Chesapeake, McClendon has raised more than $4 billion in cash and financing to invest in North American shale formations, mainly in Ohio’s Utica region. Oklahoma City-based American Energy struck deals […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Chesapeake Spins Off Oilfield-Services Company

Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Monday said its board has approved the spinoff of its oilfield-services operations into a separate, publicly traded company. The separation will be achieved through a distribution to Chesapeake shareholders after business closes June 30, as expected, the company said. Chesapeake said shareholders of record at the close of business on June 19 will receive one share of the new company, called Seventy Seven Energy Inc., for every 14 shares they own of Chesapeake common stock. Shareholders will receive the Seventy Seven Energy stock in a generally tax-free distribution, although cash received in lieu of fractional share interests will be considered taxable, Chesapeake said. Chesapeake said earlier this year that it may separate its oilfield-services operations, which provide drilling and pressure-pumping equipment to Chesapeake and other energy concerns. The business generated $2.2 billion in revenue last year. In May, the company said it would proceed with […]

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Shale Gas Is America’s Geopolitical Trump Card

When Russia and China announced a $400 billion deal last month for Russia to supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually for three decades, some analysts heralded it as a tectonic geopolitical shift. Instead, Vladimir’s Putin’s haste to sign a deal that had been in the making for more than a decade confirmed his country’s political weakness. Despite being buoyed by high energy prices in the first decade of this century, Russia is in decline. Demographically it is shrinking; it has severe health problems (the average Russian male dies in his early 60s); and it is a "one-crop economy" heavily dependent on energy exports. Russia needs reforms to build a diversified, entrepreneurial economy, but its actions in Ukraine have brought on sanctions that weaken its access to Western ideas and technology. Becoming China’s gas station does nothing to reverse this trend. The real geopolitical shift […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shale Gas Is America's Geopolitical Trump Card

When Russia and China announced a $400 billion deal last month for Russia to supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually for three decades, some analysts heralded it as a tectonic geopolitical shift. Instead, Vladimir’s Putin’s haste to sign a deal that had been in the making for more than a decade confirmed his country’s political weakness. Despite being buoyed by high energy prices in the first decade of this century, Russia is in decline. Demographically it is shrinking; it has severe health problems (the average Russian male dies in his early 60s); and it is a "one-crop economy" heavily dependent on energy exports. Russia needs reforms to build a diversified, entrepreneurial economy, but its actions in Ukraine have brought on sanctions that weaken its access to Western ideas and technology. Becoming China’s gas station does nothing to reverse this trend. The real geopolitical shift […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Marcellus Remains Driver of US Shale Gas Revolution

The Marcellus shale play remains the driving force behind the North America shale gas revolution , with current production of 12 Bcf/d surpassing production from any shale gas play worldwide, said Jeanie Oudin, Wood Mackenzie Lower 48 analyst who focuses on the Northeast, Rockies and West Coast, at a media briefing Wednesday in Houston. Wood Mackenzie anticipates production to surpass 20 Bcfe/d in 2018, attributing the enormous growth to increasingly productive wells and operators achieving better than expected results through optimal completion methods. The Utica shale play in eastern Ohio also is garnering a lot of attention and capital from the oil and gas industry. Current production from the play is only 1 Bcf/d, but Wood Mackenzie sees production rising above 5 Bcf/d in 2018 as operators apply lessons they’ve learned in the Marcellus to the Utica. These lessons include pairing with midstream partners to ensure that takeaway capacity […]

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New York's Highest Court to Rule on Towns' Fracking Bans

The New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, heard oral arguments this week in two cases regarding whether municipalities can use local zoning laws to prohibit hydraulic fracturing within the city boundaries, or whether the state’s law regulating oil and gas development within the state preempts a municipality’s local zoning laws. Presenting their cases before the seven judges on the bench, attorneys for the upstate New York towns of Dryden and Middlefield argued on the side of local zoning laws being able to prohibit oil and gas activities within a municipality’s boundaries, while a trustee for Oslo, Norway-based Norse Energy challenged the Dryden ban. Cooperstown Holstein, a dairy farm that leased land for drilling, challenged the ban by Middlefield. Lower courts had found no express or implied preemption. The Appellate Division, Third Department affirmed in May 2013 earlier Supreme Court decisions that dismissed both lawsuits, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple