Category: Shale Gas

Not long after two mild earthquakes jolted the normally steady terrain outside Youngstown, Ohio, last March, geologists quickly decided that hydraulic fracturing operations at new oil-and-gas wells in the area had set off the tremors. Now a detailed study has concluded that the earthquakes were not isolated events, but merely the largest of scores of quakes that rattled the area around the wells for more than a week. The study, published this week in The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, indicates that hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, built up subterranean pressures that repeatedly caused slippage in an existing fault as close as a half-mile beneath the wells. The number and intensity of fracking-related quakes have risen as the practice has boomed. In Oklahoma, for example, quakes have increased sharply in recent years, including the state’s largest ever, a magnitude 5.7 tremor, in 2011. Both state and federal […]

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In the world of shale gas in Ohio, the top-producing wells aren’t king of the hill for long. Take the Tippens 6HS well, for example. Located in Monroe County in southeastern Ohio, it produced more natural gas in the first quarter of 2014 than any other Utica Shale well in the state — some 1.117 billion cubic feet of the resource in 80 days, according to Ohio Department of Natural Resources records. That’s enough natural gas to fuel 12,000 houses for a year. But the well that gushed 13,972 thousand cubic feet of natural gas per day in the first three months of 2014 saw daily production drop 41 percent in the second quarter to 8,180 thousand cubic feet per day and another 26 percent in the third quarter to 6,015 thousand cubic feet per day. By autumn, the Tippens well was producing less than half the natural gas […]

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Rodney White is wrapping up a lengthy career with Platts today, and he has watched up close the battles over developing the Marcellus and Utica shales, among other areas. Not only that, he lives in West Virginia, home to part of the Marcellus. Here are some of his departing thoughts for The Barrel. ——————— Most of the people, if not all, the people in the oil and gas industry I have worked with, have been professional and spoken truthfully about the issues that mean so much to folks who live in and around the Appalachian oil and gas fields. Some companies have gone the extra mile to make things right when things go wrong. They fix roads, clean up streams and try to be good neighbors. It isn’t easy for anyone. The Appalachian terrain is not easy to work in. The terrain is steep and narrow, hence the reason we have rock […]

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Sliding oil prices have been hurting natural gas. Will the ongoing oil-price rout cause further damage to master-limited partnerships that focus on natural gas? MLPs have already gotten clobbered in recent months as the price of oil has plunged, but analysts have been quick to note that MLP performance isn’t necessarily directly correlated with oil-price trends, and that many MLPs should hold up pretty well , particularly if they’re focused on non-oil energy sources like liquefied natural gas. But Reuters reports today that the oil-price drop has claimed its first LNG-project casualty, saying Excelerate Energy’s plan for an offshore Texas liquefied natural gas terminal has been put on hold. Oleg Vukmanovic reports for Reuters: A halving in the oil price since June has upended assumptions by developers that cheap U.S. LNG would muscle into high-value Asian energy markets, which relied on oil prices staying high to make the U.S. supply […]

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The argument of the EIA and UT/BEG that their projections of shale gas production from the plays mentioned in the Nature  article are fundamentally similar is untrue, given the publicly available data. The implications of the EIA being wrong on its projections of cheap and abundant gas for decades are considerable, given that investment decisions are now being made based on these projections— including construction of infrastructure for LNG exports, gas-fired generation and even crude oil exports. Hence it is worthwhile to examine the EIA’s optimistic projections in more detail in light of the projections available from UT/BEG and the  Drilling Deeper  report (DD). Three Methodologies The two  published   UT/BEG studies  are indeed complex, focusing on myriad estimated and measured variables and the development of a tiering of sections utilizing well productivity and other data from which they infer cost of production and future production profiles. They limit […]

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — While environmental groups are doing a victory dance over New York’s decision to ban fracking, farmers such as apple grower David Johnson are grieving for dashed hopes and dreams. "I’m devastated," Johnson said after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s health and environmental commissioners announced Wednesday that they were recommending a fracking ban. "I have concerns about how to continue this farm that’s been in the family for 150 years." Energy companies denied the chance to drill in New York can simply raise their rigs in other states. That’s what they’ve done since the Marcellus Shale gas drilling boom began in 2008 and New York launched an environmental review that effectively put a moratorium in place. But landowners in the state’s Southern Tier region who had hoped to reap royalties from gas production don’t have that option. "Frankly, my heart breaks for all those families in the Southern […]

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Chesapeake Energy Corp. has completed a sale of West Virginia and Pennsylvania assets to Southwestern Energy Co. for $4.975 billion. The properties sold include about 1,500 wells overall. The companies said in October that 435 of these are in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. The price, originally $5.375 billion, was adjusted for certain items including Southwestern’s waiver of future claims related to title defects and environmental liabilities. The sale was expected to help Chesapeake reduce a substantial amount of debt accumulated under former CEO Aubrey McClendon . Chesapeake said the transaction “solidifies our strong financial position.” The company “has a liquidity position of approximately $9 billion, putting Chesapeake in an advantageous position to enhance shareholder value in this volatile commodity price market.” Chesapeake also authorized a stock-buyback plan of up to $1 billion. Chesapeake shares, which fell more than 7% during the regular session, rose 3.15% to $19 […]

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Scientific community debating studies examining the longevity of the U.S. shale natural gas boom. Photo by Steve Oehlenschlager/Shutterstock The U.S. Energy Information Administration took issue this week with an article published by Nature, in which Texas researchers said a detailed analysis of U.S. shale plays may be "bad news" for forecasters. Policymakers on Capitol Hill have said the glut of natural gas means the United States should transform itself as a major exporter of liquefied natural gas , arguing such deliveries may contribute to the rise of the country as an "energy superpower." Tad Patzek, director of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, said in the Nature report EIA assessments of shale were setting U.S. policymakers up "for a major fiasco." In a Dec. 15 retort, EIA countered the Nature article was filled with "inaccurate and distorting reporting." It further questioned Patzek’s role in the research […]

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WASHINGTON, DC, Dec. 17 12/17/2014 Enacting a severance tax aimed at Pennsylvania’s unconventional natural gas activity would substantially harm the commonwealth beyond the industry itself, three oil and gas trade association officials warned. Gov.-Elect Tom Wolf (D) made such a tax a major part of his campaign as a relatively quick way to increase revenue and begin bringing Pennsylvania’s budget in line. But the commonwealth’s economy has flourished as gas activity grew under the existing system, Associated Petroleum Industries of Pennsylvania Executive Director Stephanie Catarino Wissman said. “Energy development is sustaining families with new jobs and generating more income for communities,” she said during a Dec. 16 teleconference with reporters. “Don’t fix what is not broken. Don’t break the economic backbone of the commonwealth.” “The revenue projections that were out there during campaign season were wildly overestimated and can’t be supported by facts,” added Marcellus Shale Coalition Pres. Dave […]

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Study points to the greatest threat from methane emissions Natural Gas Emissions A new study led by researchers from The University of Texas hopes to provide clues to better understand the correlation between well technology and methane emissions during the natural gas production process. The findings, published December 9th in Environmental Science & Technology , indicate that the overwhelming majority of methane emissions are from two types of wells; those that use pneumatic devices and those that use liquid unloading. According to the study, 19% of Pneumatic Devices were responsible for 95% of methane emissions and were highest in the Gulf Coast Region, which was a similar result to the first part of the study conducted in 2013 . As for Liquid Unloading, 20% of these devices account for 65-85% emissions. Conversely, this finding showed emissions were highest (~50%) in the Rocky Mountain Region due to the higher number […]

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Texas study finds shale natural gas future may not be as bright as rival analyses predict. UPI/Gary C. Caskey AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 4 (UPI) — A study of shale natural gas plays in the United States finds some of the predictions for long-term growth may be overly optimistic, the journal Nature reports. The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects shale natural gas production to increase through 2040. Advances in hydraulic fracturing, the drilling practice known commonly as fracking, has given energy companies a way to coax gas out of shale rock deposits that were previously out of reach. Tad Patzek, director of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, said a detailed analysis of U.S. shale plays may be "bad news" for forecasters, describing the EIA’s forecast as optimistic. Policymakers on Capitol Hill have said the glut of natural gas means the United States should transform itself as […]

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A rig drills for natural gas using hydraulic-fracturing methods in a Pennsylvania shale formation. Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Alamy When US President Barack Obama talks about the future, he foresees a thriving US economy fuelled to a large degree by vast amounts of natural gas pouring from domestic wells. “We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years,” he declared in his 2012 State of the Union address. Obama’s statement reflects an optimism that has permeated the United States. It is all thanks to fracking — or hydraulic fracturing — which has made it possible to coax natural gas at a relatively low price out of the fine-grained rock known as shale. Around the country, terms such as ‘shale revolution’ and ‘energy abundance’ echo through corporate boardrooms. Companies are betting big on forecasts of cheap, plentiful natural gas. Over the next 20 years, US industry and […]

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If you’re looking for the shale gas boom, northeastern Pennsylvania is the place to start. The Marcellus is the largest and fastest growing shale gas play in the U.S. and more than half of its 50 most productive wells were drilled in Susquehanna County in the northeast. Susquehanna and neighboring Bradford County produced 41 percent of all Marcellus gas this June . While drilling is down in other shale gas plays across the US, with major oil companies selling off their stakes and CEO’s expressing regret for buying in, the Marcellus has bucked some of the downward trends so far. A recent report from the Post Carbon Institute, “ Drilling Deeper: A Reality Check on U.S. Government Forecasts for a Lasting Tight Oil and Shale Gas Boom ,” has grave warnings about the Energy Information Administration’s figures nationwide, concluding that two-fifths of the shale gas the agency expects to […]

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Republished December 2, 2014, 11:00 a.m. to update text. Spurred by growing natural gas production in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, the natural gas pipeline industry is planning to modify its systems to allow bidirectional flow to move up to 8.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) out of the Northeast. As of 2013, the industry had the capacity to transport 25 Bcf/d of natural gas from Canada, the Midwest, and the Southeast into the Northeast. In addition to these bidirectional projects in the Northeast, the industry plans to expand existing systems and build new systems to transport natural gas produced in the Northeast to consuming markets outside the region. Flows on ANR Pipeline, Texas Eastern Transmission, Transcontinental Pipeline, Iroquois Gas Pipeline, Rockies Express Pipeline, and Tennessee Gas Pipeline accounted for 60% of flows to the Northeast in 2013. Flows on these pipelines in 2013 were between 21% and […]

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The year 2014 will be remembered for an unprecedented juxtaposition of events. Two oil-producing countries in the Middle East were in a state of crisis. Relations between the West and Russia slumped to a new Cold War low. And oil prices have slumped, to $66 a barrel for Brent Crude this morning, half its recent peak. This didn’t used to happen. The modern history of oil prices is characterised by a series of spikes, each one coinciding with a crisis in the Middle East. It is a mark of how US shale gas and oil production has changed the oil market – and thus the prospects for the global economy. Never has a theory collapsed so quickly as Peak Oil, the idea that fossil fuel prices would rise inexorably as supply failed to keep track of demand. Even as late as 2011 the US had a trade deficit in […]

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Republished November 25, 2014, 10:15 a.m. to clarify graph title. Total U.S. natural gas gross withdrawals reached a new high at 82 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2013, with shale gas wells becoming the largest source of total natural gas production. Natural gas gross withdrawals are a measure of full well stream production including all natural gas plant liquids and nonhydrocarbon gases after oil, lease condensate, and water have been removed. According to the Natural Gas Annual , gross withdrawals from shale gas wells increased from 5 Bcf/d in 2007 to 33 Bcf/d in 2013, representing 40% of total natural gas production, and surpassing production from nonshale natural gas wells. New technology has enabled producers to shift production to resources that are now easier to reach and have lower drilling costs. These trends have been reflected in a lower market price of natural gas. In 2007, shale […]

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Resilience Published on Resilience (http://www.resilience.org) The first researchers to systematically document ill health in livestock, pets, and people living near fracking drill sites were Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald. Bamberger, a veterinarian, and Oswald, a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell University, used a case study approach–looking at individual households–to search for possible effects (Bamberger and Oswald 2012). Many fracking chemicals are known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors or other classes of toxins (Colborn et al. 2011). Bamberger and Oswald’s studies, carried out during the ongoing fracking boom, uncovered serious adverse effects including respiratory, reproductive, and growth-related problems in animals and a spectrum of symptoms in humans that they termed “shale gas syndrome”. Ultimately, their research led them to consider fracking’s broader implications for farming and the food system (Bamberger and Oswald 2012 and 2014). Their new book, The Real Cost of Fracking: How America’s Shale Gas Boom Is Threatening Our […]

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Fracking for oil and natural gas in Pennsylvania is creating a significant amount of economic stimulus for the state in the form of new jobs and funding that will help pay for infrastructure, according to the Pennsylvania Business Daily. And while there is some resistance from activists, Pennsylvania communities are becoming more open to drilling in the state, according to the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Natural Gas Association Director of Public Outreach, Dan Weaver. The broader acceptance is a relatively new occurrence, Weaver said. “Four or five years ago, everyone was using scare tactics, saying that there was going to be mass, widespread devastation and everything was going to just go downhill. We’re four or five years later, and there is no mass, widespread devastation,” Weaver said. While devastation has not found its way to the area, employment opportunities have: the drilling is creating thousands of good jobs in […]

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4725 Votes Ed Wade’s property straddles the Wetzel and Marsh county lines in rural West Virginia and it has a conventional gas well on it. “You could cover the whole [well] pad with three pickups,” said Wade. And West Virginia has lots of conventional wells — more than 50,000 at last count. West Virginians are so well acquainted with gas drilling that when companies began using high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing in 2006 to access areas of the Marcellus Shale that underlie the state, most residents and regulators were unprepared for the massive footprint of the operations and the impact on their communities. When it comes to a conventional well and a Marcellus well, “There is no comparison, none whatsoever,” said Wade, who works with the Wetzel County Action Group . “You live in the country for a reason and it just takes that and turns it upside down. You […]

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4725 Votes The economics of natural gas production in the dry Marcellus, the wet Marcellus and the Utica are so favorable—and the shale gas resource so bountiful—that the only real limit on how much the Marcellus/Utica plays can produce is the capacity of the pipeline network in the Northeast and neighboring regions to take gas to market. And there’s the rub, because the region’s gas transmission infrastructure was designed decades ago to deliver large volumes of gas to the Northeast, not away from it. That’s why the midstream sector has made “a new plan, Stan,” and is now in now in the midst of a major reworking of the pipeline system—not just within and near the Marcellus/Utica but just about everywhere east of the Mississippi. The $30 billion re-plumbing effort and its effects on the gas market as a whole are the subject of RBN’s latest Drill-Down Report, “ 50 […]

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No signs U.S. shale natural gas boom will slow down, a division of the Platts energy services company says. UPI/Gary C. Caskey DENVER, Nov. 7 (UPI) — U.S. natural gas production has risen for the 10th consecutive month, moving steadily into "unchartered territory," analysis from Platts finds. Bentek Energy, the forecasting unit of Platts, found gas production in the Lower 48 states averaged 69.9 billion cubic feet per day in October, breaking the previous record and posting the 10th straight month of gains. Gas production in October was 7.9 percent higher year-on-year. Jack Weixel, director of analysis at Bentek, said projects slated to come online in the U.S. northeast should push the U.S. gas output above the 72 billion cubic feet per day mark by the end of the year. "The current level of production is unchartered territory for the domestic natural gas market and shows no signs of […]

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URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/135811/Illinois_Lawmakers_Approve_Fracking_Rules CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois lawmakers signed off Thursday on long-awaited rules regulating high-volume oil and gas drilling, clearing the way for companies to get "fracking" permits and unleash what they hope will be an energy boom in the southern part of the state. But a number of key details were not disclosed including how the state plans to fund the hiring of new workers to oversee the practice, which uses high-pressure mixtures to crack open rocks and release trapped oil and gas. The delay in the fracking rules — which took more than a year for the state Department of Natural Resources to write and which were revised by a legislative committee — prompted complaints from industry that energy development would suffer. The final rules must be submitted to the Secretary of State to be published by Nov. 15. The secretive approval process set off alarm bells […]

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Voters in Denton, Texas, voted strongly in favor of a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the city, the first such restriction in energy-friendly Texas.  With the majority of precincts reporting Continue Reading

Printer-friendly If you want to see the future of the shale industry — what today’s drilling rush will leave behind — come to Bradford, Pennsylvania. A small city, it was home to one of America’s first energy booms, producing over three quarters of the world’s oil in 1877. A wooden oil rig towering over a local museum commemorates those heady days, marking the first “billion dollar oil field” in the world. But times have changed dramatically in Bradford. Most of the oil has been pumped out, leaving residents atop an aging oil field that requires complicated upkeep and mounting costs. Since its height in the 1940’s, Bradford’s population has steadily declined, leaving the city now home to only 8,600 people , down from over 17,000. The story of Bradford these days is a story of thousands of oil and gas wells: abandoned, uncapped, and often leaking. To drive through […]

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Printer-friendly by Anastasia Pantsios , originally published by EcoWatch  | TODAY In light of an increasing number of studies showing that fracking produces toxic emissions that have serious human health impacts throughout the entire process, Pennsylvania Congressman Matt Cartwright , a first-term Democrat, has opened an investigation into how toxic wastes from fracking are regulated. What’s at stake. Fracking has grown at a rapid rate in Pennsylvania, and operators are increasingly eying the state’s public parks and forests while sit atop a major shale play. Photo credit: EcoFlight What’s at stake. Fracking has grown at a rapid rate in Pennsylvania, and operators are increasingly eying the state’s public parks and forests while sit atop a major shale play.   Photo credit: EcoFlight  “Preliminary reports indicate there are big gaps in protections and oversight that the federal government might have to fill,” Cartwright told Inside Climate News . Fracking is […]

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URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/135620/BHP_Billiton_Eyes_Sale_Of_US_Shale_Gas_Assets_In_Profit_Drive Hess To Form MLP For North Dakota Oil, Gas Transport Assets BHP Billiton is planning to sell its Fayetteville shale gas assets in the US, in the latest effort to trim its portfolio in the region and focus on more profitable petroleum liquids. LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) – BHP Billiton is planning to sell its Fayetteville shale gas assets in the United States, the mining and energy group said on Monday, in the latest effort to trim its portfolio in the region and focus on more profitable petroleum liquids. The petroleum division of BHP, the world’s largest miner, is one of the largest foreign investors in the U.S. onshore oil and gas sector. The unit has grown in importance within BHP in the least few years, thanks to a market outlook that has been brighter for energy than for other commodities. Within the petroleum business, however, BHP […]

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Could this gas well in Washington Township be part of the solution to Pennsylvania’s underfunded public schools? Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images Could this gas well in Washington Township be part of the solution to Pennsylvania’s underfunded public schools? Pennsylvania Republican Governor Tom Corbett’s reelection campaign is being fought, and lost, over the issue of public education. Corbett has consistently trailed his Democratic opponent by double digits in polls where voters have repeatedly identified education as their number one electoral priority. Tom Wolf, the Democrat, is running against the deep cuts Corbett made to state support for schools, which resulted in the loss of at least 23,000 education jobs and local property tax hikes statewide. In June, the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators found that three-fourths of the surveyed school districts expected further tax increases this year . In response, Wolf promises to wrest desperately needed revenue from the […]

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Drillers for Pennsylvania’s natural gas are facing a growing threat—from their own productivity.  Hydraulic fracturing and other new drilling techniques have caused the amount of natural gas flowing out of Continue Reading

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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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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