Category: Shale Gas

Two Chevron Corp. natural-gas wells in southwestern Pennsylvania are no longer on fire after an explosion last week that left one worker missing, according to the company. Chevron said the flames had gone out Saturday afternoon at the well site in Dunkard Township, about 70 miles south of Pittsburgh. Workers were preparing to remove a charred crane above one well and stop the gas from flowing. A company spokesman said there is no word of the missing worker, a contractor. "It is premature to speculate on what caused the flames to go out," the company said, adding that the crane is now cool enough that it won’t cause gas flowing from the wells to ignite. The blast took place early on the morning of Feb. 11, as Chevron and its contractors were running tubes through the well to start producing natural gas. The fire heated the crane to such […]

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Magnum Hunter Resources’ Friday announcement of a prolific Utica Shale gas well in Monroe County, Ohio, highlights the migration of Utica drilling south out of its original core in Carroll County. Houston-based Magnum Hunter said its first dry gas well off the Stalder #3 pad was placed into production this week with a peak rate of 32,500 Mcf/d. The pad could eventually hold 18 wells, Magnum Hunter said. Analysts at energy investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt on Friday crowed about the "huge" well. "Well still cleaning up frack water and company believes sales rate will likely increase over the next few days. Stalder #3 drilled to a vertical depth of roughly 10,600 feet with a 5,000 feet lateral fracked with 20 stages," TPH said. The Stalder well moves the dry gas fairway of the Utica further east towards West Virginia, TPH said, and was […]

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A fire at a Chevron Corp natural gas well in western Pennsylvania was being left to burn on Wednesday after an explosion early Tuesday left one worker injured and another missing, state officials said. Flames shot from the head of the Lanco 7H well, which is 50 miles south of Pittsburgh in the Marcellus shale region and emergency workers were unable to get near on Wednesday. The fire could continue indefinitely as gas flows up the well from underground, said John Poister, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. "There’s a large amount of gas in the well, and it could burn, if we just sat there and watched it, for months or years," Poister said. Chevron said it did not know how long the fire would continue. Putting the flames out will probably involve some sort of smothering, possibly with foam […]

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A fire at a Chevron Corp natural gas well in western Pennsylvania was being left to burn on Wednesday after an explosion early Tuesday left one worker injured and another missing, state officials said. Flames shot from the head of the Lanco 7H well, which is 50 miles south of Pittsburgh in the Marcellus shale region and emergency workers were unable to get near on Wednesday. The fire could continue indefinitely as gas flows up the well from underground, said John Poister, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. "There’s a large amount of gas in the well, and it could burn, if we just sat there and watched it, for months or years," Poister said. Chevron said it did not know how long the fire would continue. Putting the flames out will probably involve some sort of smothering, possibly with foam […]

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Chesapeake Energy Corp. expects to spend less on capital improvements in 2014, as the natural-gas company works to trim costs after years of liberal spending. The company projected $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion in 2014 capital expenditures, representing a 20% reduction from the midpoint of 2013’s outlook. After adjusting for 2013 asset sales, the company expects to generate 8% to 10% production growth this year, consisting of 8% to 12% oil production growth, 44% to 49% natural gas liquids production growth and 4% to 6% natural gas production growth. Per-unit production and general and administrative expenses are expected to decline in 2014. The Oklahoma City company, which spent billions of dollars more than it made from operations in recent years, has started spending less, but its cost-control efforts have raised concerns among investors about the company’s growth prospects. New Chief Executive Doug Lawler has mapped out a strategy of […]

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Research  conducted by U.S. Geological Survey geophysicists suggests it was induced by injection into deep disposal wells in the Wilzetta North field. Photo Credit: Brian Sherrod, USGS. The locals call it “incoming,” and some compare the violence of the tremors to living in a war zone. Others say it’s like having their homes hit by a truck. The scene is north Texas, home to the Barnett Shale, the largest unconventional gas field in the United States. There, industry, often touted as the new engine of the U.S. economy, has punctured and fractured the landscape with 17,000 gas wells, as well as thousands of disposal sites to get rid of related toxic waste fluids. It’s in north Texas where the unconventional gas industry, together with what it calls the “safe and proven” […]

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It is well known that advances in technology have enabled the US to experience a huge boom in oil production over the past several years. Since 2007, oil production from North Dakota’s Bakken formation has increased by 4,000% , and turning the state into the second largest oil producer after Texas. The problem is that a natural by-product of oil extraction is natural gas, and due to the lack of infrastructure to store, transport, and compress the gas, nearly 30% has to be burned at the well in a process known as flaring. Think Progress reports that an estimated $100 million worth of natural gas is flared in North Dakota every month, depriving the US economy of a huge source of revenue, and also releasing vast amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. On Wednesday, the North Dakota Petroleum Council, comprised of hundreds of companies, promised to try and […]

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North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple said building a 375-mile natural gas pipeline in the state will reduce the amount of gas wasted during oil production. Dalrymple said Thursday he backed plans by WBI Energy Inc., a subsidiary of MDU Resources Group, to build the pipeline to deliver natural gas from the Bakken reserve area in the west of the state to eastern North Dakota consumers. North Dakota lacks the infrastructure necessary to take full advantage of natural gas associated with oil reserves in the state at the heart of the shale oil and natural gas boom. Some of the natural gas associated with oil production is burned off, or flared, as a result. "We are committed to working with WBI Energy and the entire energy industry so that we continue to reduce flaring, add value to our energy resources and help meet the […]

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American Energy Partners LP, led by Aubrey McClendon , continues to bulk up in Ohio’s Utica Shale, purchasing natural-gas fields from Hess Corp. for $924 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Hess said Wednesday it struck an agreement to sell 74,000 acres in the Utica to an undisclosed buyer. The company has sold more than $7.8 billion in assets over the past year to raise cash and narrow its focus on growing oil output in the U.S. Hess issued fourth-quarter financial results on Wednesday, reporting a profit of $1.93 billion, up from $374 million in the year-ago period. It will use the proceeds from the Utica sale to repurchase stock. American Energy Partners said on Wednesday that an affiliate had raised $500 million to invest in wells across the country, but a spokesman for the company declined to comment on the Utica deal. It was a year […]

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