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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More than 200 private drinking water wells have been contaminated by natural gas drilling activity in Pennsylvania since 2007, according to documents released late Thursday by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP released a list of 243 well contamination complaints that led to investigations and, in most cases, some form of resolution. The number of complaints amounts to 2.8% of the 7,536 unconventional wells drilled since 2009. Between 2009 and 2010, during the land rush to the Marcellus, water complaints nearly doubled from 34 in 2009 to 61 in 2010, the record shows. About half drinking water wells were damaged by conventional drilling and half by unconventional, or horizontal, drilling, DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management Scott Perry said in a statement. Complaints declined 41% in 2011 to 36 contaminated wells and remained at that level until dropping again this year to 1.3% of the […]

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Energy consultant group Wood Mackenzie describes Marcellus as the largest natural gas basin of its kind in the world when based on production. The group said there may be more than $90 billion left in value in the play based on projected output from new wells. Jonathan Garret, a researcher in the exploration and production market in the United States, said the top 20 operators in Marcellus are expected to generate $86 billion in shale value. "These operators are forecast to spend nearly $110 billion in the play and to drill over 25,000 Marcellus wells through 2035," he said in a statement Wednesday. By 2020, Wood Mackenzie estimates Marcellus, centered largely in Pennsylvania, should produce an average of 20 billion cubic feet of equivalent per day, which it said would represent 25 percent of the total U.S. natural gas supply . Wood Mackenzie says the number of active rigs […]

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"We remain committed to meeting the needs of our customers by building essential natural gas and natural gas liquids infrastructure in the Williston Basin," Terry Spencer, president and chief executive officer of ONEOK Partners, said in a statement Tuesday. The company, which has headquarters in Oklahoma, said its gas processing capacity in the area today is five times greater than it was four years ago. More gas processing capacity in the state means less gas associated with oil deposits is burned off, or flared. 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. The state government said, however, that gas processing capacity has increased from 200 million cubic feet per day to 1.3 billion cubic feet per day since 2006. ONEOK said it should have 1.1 billion […]

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Cabot was fined $76,546 by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for an incident at its Huston well in the northeast part of the state. DEP said the January incident was the result of the failure of a subcontractor to follow standard operating procedures that would have led to a proper valve closure on the well. Furthermore, DEP said the presence of frozen sand in the well may have led to a false positive indicating the well was closed off. DEP Director of Oil and Gas Operations Johns Ryder said his department ensured there was no significant environmental impact from the accident. "In this incident, mostly gas was released, which dissipated quickly to background levels within 100 feet from the well," he said in a statement Tuesday. Cabot told DEP it couldn’t determine how much gas was released during the 27-hour incident. There was no statement from the company […]

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The shale gas that lies beneath the surface of Upstate New York belongs to real people who need it now. It’s time they stood up for themselves! I recently read a comment on an online anti-drilling site that made me laugh out loud.  I have made and read many comments on many articles, but surely this one deserved first place in three specific categories; Most Ignorant, Most Thoughtless and Most Typical. The writer was complaining about a pipeline that will deliver natural gas to other peoples’ homes. Here is the substance of the comment: Pipelines are a bad thing. They have to cut down lots of trees through the woods. During construction of one near my home, traffic was bad due to the many trucks and equipment being used to build the pipeline. If I knew that pipeline was going by my home I wouldn’t have built my “Log Cabin” in Lycoming County. It makes you wonder if […]

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Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday said it plans to exit the Pinedale and Haynesville dry gas plays while adding acreage in the Marcellus and Utica shales in Pennsylvania, continuing its strategy of divesting large US natural gas assets in some plays, while adding assets in other plays to its portfolio. Shell announced two separate transactions in a statement Thursday. In one deal with Ultra Petroleum, Shell will acquire 155,000 net acres in the Marcellus and Utica shales in Pennsylvania and receive a cash payment of $925 million from Ultra in exchange for 100% of Shell’s Pinedale Anticline field assets in western Wyoming, including producing leases and associated gathering and processing contracts. In a separate agreement with Dallas-based Vine Oil & Gas and its partner Blackstone, Shell agreed to sell 100% of its Haynesville assets in northern Louisiana — including gas-producing properties and associated field facilities and infrastructure — for […]

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The Utica Region in eastern Ohio, one of the fastest growing natural gas production areas in the United States, has been added to the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). Total natural gas production in the Utica Region, which includes production from the Utica and Point Pleasant formations as well as legacy production from conventional reservoirs, has increased from 155 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) in January 2012 to an estimated 1.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in September 2014. Utica formation drilling activity has been primarily focused in eastern Ohio since mid-2012, although the geologic formation extends into Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Some producers are successfully targeting the Utica formation in northern West Virginia, but these wells fall within the existing DPR Marcellus Region. The DPR analyzes all drilling and production within geographic areas in order to capture total production volumes supplied to the market […]

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The Utica Region in eastern Ohio, one of the fastest growing natural gas production areas in the United States, has been added to the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). Total natural gas production in the Utica Region, which includes production from the Utica and Point Pleasant formations as well as legacy production from conventional reservoirs, has increased from 155 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) in January 2012 to an estimated 1.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in September 2014. Utica formation drilling activity has been primarily focused in eastern Ohio since mid-2012, although the geologic formation extends into Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Some producers are successfully targeting the Utica formation in northern West Virginia, but these wells fall within the existing DPR Marcellus Region. The DPR analyzes all drilling and production within geographic areas in order to capture total production volumes supplied to the market […]

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The rapid shale gas development in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale formation has presented both challenges and opportunities to local governments and communities. In particular, concerns that local governments might be entering a “boom and bust” cycle—similar to previous resource extraction experiences in Pennsylvania’s history—are on the rise. A recent study, Getting the Boom Without the Bust: Guiding Southwestern Pennsylvania Through Shale Gas Development , released by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and Washington & Jefferson College’s Center for Energy Policy & Management confirms that the gas boom in Pennsylvania is still under way, and explores best practices that communities can implement to better protect themselves against a bust experience. Boom cycle Heightened industrial activity at the beginning of a resource extraction development usually induces an influx of workers into hosting communities, placing strains on the local government’s ability to provide public services, including healthcare and public […]

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Chesapeake Energy Corp. said its second-quarter earnings fell 67%, dragged down by a loss on the repurchase of debt securities related to a refinancing. The company, however, raised its midpoint of 2014 production outlook by 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and posted a bigger-than-expected increase in revenue. Chief Executive Doug Lawler said Chesapeake plans to connect 35% more wells in the second half of the year compared with the first six months. "As our pace of well connections accelerates, we expect our production growth trajectory will increase accordingly," he said. The company also completed its spinoff of its oil and natural-gas business, now known as Seventy Seven Energy Inc., on June 30. The division—which as a part of Chesapeake offered drilling, hydraulic fracturing and rig relocation, among other services—pulled in about $2.2 billion in revenue last year. In conjunction with the spinoff, Chesapeake removed $1.1 billion of […]

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Oil and gas producer Range Resources did not properly monitor leaks from a wastewater containment pond in Pennsylvania and the state has begun enforcement action that could lead to a fine, state officials said on Wednesday. A leak was detected earlier this year at the Yeager impoundment in Amwell Township in Washington County, in southwestern Pennsylvania, according to the Notice of Violation issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection on July 24. The pond contains a briny mixture of fluids, including drilling water that returns to the surface after fracking, the process that involves pumping chemical-laced water and sand underground to fracture rock to release oil or gas, said Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella. "During its operation of the (pond), flow was often detected in the leak detection zone, but Range did not satisfy the permit’s weekly chlorides testing requirements," the notice […]

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Natural gas production in the Marcellus Region exceeded 15 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) through July, the first time ever recorded, according to EIA’s latest Drilling Productivity Report . The Marcellus Region, mostly located in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, is the largest producing shale gas basin in the United States, accounting for almost 40% of U.S. shale gas production. Marcellus Region production has increased dramatically over the past four years, increasing from 2 Bcf/d in 2010 to its current level. The rig count in the Marcellus Region has remained steady at around 100 rigs over the past 10 months. Given the continued improvement in drilling productivity , which EIA measures as new-well production per rig, EIA expects natural gas production in the Marcellus Region to continue to grow. With 100 rigs in operation and with each […]

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Natural gas production from the Marcellus shale has surpassed 15 bcfd through July and now represents 40% of US shale gas production, making it the largest producing shale gas basin in the country, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s Drilling Productivity Report . While the region’s rig count has leveled off at around 100 rigs over the past 10 months, improvements in drilling productivity have enabled operators to more efficiently support new wells. EIA expects wells coming online in August to add more than 600 MMcfd to existing production, more than offsetting a drop in production due to existing well decline rates, thus increasing the production rate by 247 MMcfd. Marcellus production in recent years has shot up to record levels after accounting for just 2 bcfd in 2010, resulting in record gas storage injections, multiple pipeline expansion projects to remedy bottlenecks, and stabilized or decreased prices ( […]

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Public opinion has been divided very starkly indeed by the government’s invitation to energy companies to apply for licences to develop shale gas across a broad swathe of the United Kingdom. On the one hand, many environmental and conservation groups are bitterly opposed to shale development. Ranged against them are those within and beyond the energy industry who believe that the exploitation of shale gas can prove not only vital but hugely positive for the British economy. Rather oddly, hardly anyone seems to have asked the one question which is surely fundamental: does shale development make economic sense? My conclusion is that it does not. That Britain needs new energy sources is surely beyond dispute. Between 2003 and 2013, domestic production of oil and gas slumped by 62pc and 65pc respectively, while coal output decreased by 55pc. Despite sharp increases in […]

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High rates of natural gas flaring in the Bakken shale formation are symptomatic of infrastructure limitations that prevent this gas from reaching a market. Although various technical options could reduce flaring from high-output well sites, none matches the benefits of developing large-scale outlets for the gas. The Wall St. Journal recently reported on the high rate at which excess natural gas from wells in North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation is burned off, or “flared.”  The Journal cited state data indicating 10.3 billion cubic feet (BCF) of gas were flared there during April 2014. That represented 30% of total gas production in the state for the month. North Dakota’s governor attributed the high volume of gas flared in his state to the great speed at which the Bakken shale has been developed, outpacing gas recovery efforts. Oil output ramped up from 200,000 barrels per day five years ago to just over […]

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It isn’t every day that an energy company tries to give away cash, but one of the biggest oil producers in North Dakota is trying to do just that. Continental Resources Ltd. says it wants to pay state taxes and make royalty payments on natural gas it improperly burned off at dozens of wells in recent years. The company is asking state regulators to approve its plans, including the value it is assigning to the gas that was burned in the controversial practice known as flaring. "We believe we’re the first operator out there asking to be allowed to pay royalties and taxes," said Brooks Richardson, Continental’s director of risk enterprise management. Continental and other North Dakota drillers say they were forced to burn off gas they would have rather […]

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California officials have ordered an emergency shut-down of 11 oil and gas waste injection sites and a review more than 100 others in the state’s drought-wracked Central Valley out of fear that companies may have been pumping fracking fluids and other toxic waste into drinking water aquifers there. The state’s Division of Oil and Gas and Geothermal Resources on July 7 issued cease and desist orders to seven energy companies warning that they may be injecting their waste into aquifers that could be a source of drinking water, and stating that their waste disposal "poses danger to life, health, property, and natural resources." The orders were first reported by the Bakersfield Californian, and the state has confirmed with ProPublica that its investigation is expanding to look at additional wells. The action comes as California’s agriculture industry copes with a drought crisis that has emptied reservoirs and cost the state […]

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DENTON, Texas (AP) — The council governing a North Texas city that sits atop a large natural gas reserve rejected a bid early Wednesday morning to ban further permitting of hydraulic fracturing in the community after eight hours of public testimony. Denton City Council members voted down the petition 5-2, sending the proposal to a public ballot in November. Fracking involves blasting a mix of water, sand and chemicals deep into underground rock formations to release trapped oil and gas. While the method has long stirred concerns about its effects on the environment and human health, proponents argue that fracking can be done safely and is cleaner than other forms of energy extraction. And industry groups and state regulators had warned such a ban could be followed by litigation and a severe hit to Denton’s economy. Barry Smitherman, chairman of the Railroad Commission, the Texas oil and gas regulator, […]

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After studying production data from 65,000 wells from 31 different unconventional shale rock formations in 2012, David Hughes predicted big trouble ahead for North America’s unconventional hydrocarbon revolution. The prominent geologist, who has studied Canada’s energy resources for four decades, warned that shale gas and tight oil operations shared four big challenges: escalating capital costs, uneven performance and a growing environmental footprint, all followed by rapid depletion. "Shale gas can continue to grow, but only at higher prices and that growth will require an ever escalating drilling treadmill with associated collateral financial and environmental costs — and its long term sustainability is highly questionable," predicted Hughes just two years ago. Recent economic data on the industry from Bloomberg, Energy Analyst and even the International Energy Agency shows that Hughes was bang on. The tough economic news on shale, a dense rock that lies two to three kilometres underground, comes […]

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After studying production data from 65,000 wells from 31 different unconventional shale rock formations in 2012, David Hughes predicted big trouble ahead for North America’s unconventional hydrocarbon revolution. The prominent geologist, who has studied Canada’s energy resources for four decades, warned that shale gas and tight oil operations shared four big challenges: escalating capital costs, uneven performance and a growing environmental footprint, all followed by rapid depletion. "Shale gas can continue to grow, but only at higher prices and that growth will require an ever escalating drilling treadmill with associated collateral financial and environmental costs — and its long term sustainability is highly questionable," predicted Hughes just two years ago. Recent economic data on the industry from Bloomberg, Energy Analyst and even the International Energy Agency shows that Hughes was bang on. The tough economic news on shale, a dense rock that lies two to three kilometres underground, comes […]

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Pennsylvania has filed charges against Exxon unit XTO Energy. Pictured, an XTO operation in the state. Corbis Exxon Mobil Corp. is fighting criminal charges over a wastewater spill in Pennsylvania with an unusual defense, contending that the state’s attorney general improperly singled the company out in an effort to stop hydraulic fracturing. Attorney General Kathleen Kane fired back on Wednesday in a court filing that calls the company’s claims "nothing more than weak attempts to obfuscate the truth." Prosecutors say Exxon subsidiary XTO Energy Inc. is criminally liable for a big leak of water that had been used in fracking in north-central Pennsylvania in 2010. The case involves the first criminal charges filed against a public company drilling in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. A spokeswoman for the attorney general said the state has convicted more than 800 individuals and companies of environmental crimes. "No single industry has been targeted," said […]

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The oil industry’s largest lobbying group began a new effort to ease public fears about hydraulic fracturing after a legal setback in New York state and a voter push in Colorado to ban the drilling practice. The American Petroleum Institute, a Washington-based group that includes Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Chevron Corp. (CVX) , released guidelines for improving community relations as “fracking” extends to more towns, raising concerns about pollution risks. The suggestions will help “raise the bar for the industry,” David Miller, director of standards for the group that has guided the industry on well design and preventing spills since 1924, said at a conference call with reporters today. The effort will help oil and gas companies develop “lasting relationships” with communities where drilling occurs, he said. The document reads like an etiquette guide for producers moving into rural towns to start drilling. Companies are encouraged to distribute […]

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A New York court decision to let cities and towns block hydraulic fracturing is a major blow to the industry, an advocacy group said. The Court of Appeals in Albany ruled in two separate cases that municipalities can use zoning laws to ban hydraulic fracturing within their borders. New York hosts a part of the Marcellus shale formations, one of the premier shale gas basins in the United States. There’s a current state moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. Karen Moreau, executive director of the New York State Petroleum Council, said that, because municipal boards can change every two years, the regulatory landscape in the state will keep energy investors at bay. "There are real losses here, and it’s a real tragedy for thousands of farmers and people in rural communities that would have realized the economic benefits that oil and gas development can deliver," she said in […]

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Scientists say that a recent surge of low-magnitude earthquakes in Oklahoma is likely the result of the underground disposal of vast quantities of wastewater generated by oil and gas extraction. Temblors in Oklahoma used to be rare. Before 2008, the state experienced just one earthquake of magnitude 3 or larger each year. So far this year the state has already witnessed 230 quakes of that size-more than the number recorded in California. "There are large regions in the state that are lighting up" with quakes, said Katie Keranen, seismologist at Cornell University and lead author of a study on the Oklahoma temblors, published Thursday in the journal Science. "It’s a very profound increase." The findings add to a growing body of evidence that various types of large-scale human activity–from coal mining and quarrying to building dams–can help to trigger quakes. In most cases, the geological processes […]

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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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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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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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, […]

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