Category: Shale Oil

North Dakota officials are considering requiring energy companies to treat the crude they pump from the Bakken Shale to make it less volatile before it is loaded onto trains. The North Dakota Industrial Commission plans to hold a public hearing in the coming weeks on possible steps to reduce volatility at a well site before oil is stored or transported, said a spokeswoman for North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple. The commission, the state’s chief energy regulator, is considering issuing new standards for treating crude as well as monitoring requirements, she said. Several trains carrying Bakken crude have derailed since the summer of 2013, exploding violently and in one instance killing 47 people in Quebec. As The Wall Street Journal has reported , light crude tapped from North Dakota shale is more combustible than many other grades of oil and, unlike in other places, seldom stabilized. Production of this volatile […]

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For the second time in two weeks a state judge in Colorado has overturned a city’s attempt to regulate hydraulic fracturing within its borders. In a Thursday decision in the District Court of Larimer County, Judge Gregory Lammons ruled that the city of Fort Collins’ five-year ban on the use of fracking and the storage of fracking waste was pre-empted by the state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Act. Lammons’ ruling comes in a case brought by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, following a vote last November in which voters called for the city to impose a five-year moratorium on fracking and disposal of fracking waste within the city’s boundaries. On July 24, District Judge D.D. Mallard of the Boulder County District Court overturned a fracking ban that the city of Longmont had instituted, ruling that it was pre-empted by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Act, which gives […]

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When dueling sides in Colorado’s debate over fracking agreed this week to drop voter initiatives that could have had long-term consequences for the state’s energy future, it was a sign that “cooler heads prevailed,” Jon Haubert, Coloradans for the Responsible Energy Development (CRED) director of communications, told Rigzone. Activists and pro-energy forces agreed during the week to work with Colorado Governor John Kickenlooper and a task force on a compromise solution. Both sides then dropped their respective initiatives, a step which Haubert said was in everyone’s best interests. CRED said it was committed to its long-term educational mission at informing the general public about the energy, economic and environmental benefits of safe and responsible oil and natural gas development, and that it is looking forwarding to working with the new state task force. It is hard to overstate […]

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Concho Resources Inc. (CXO) is facing delays of several hours to get sand for fracking in the Permian Basin as a drilling boom in West Texas drives up demand and creates delivery bottlenecks. Talk of a sand shortage is most prominent in the Delaware Basin region of the play, Joe Wright, chief operating officer of the Midland, Texas-based company, said on its earnings conference call today. The Permian Basin accounts for 30 percent of the 1,889 active U.S. drilling rigs, according to Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) “There has been a lot of chatter around sand shortages,” Wright said. “It’s really more of a transportation of sand, or distribution of sand” issue, he said. Wright expects the delays to persist during the next 30 days. The use of sand for fracking in the U.S. and Canada is expected to increase 17 percent a year, reaching 130 billion pounds (59 billion […]

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It was almost dinnertime when an ice cream truck lazily made its way through the North Texas subdivision. A few kids came running. Maile Bush’s children weren’t among them, because she won’t let them go outside. The family moved to Denton for their slice of heaven. That was, she said, before the fracking industry came knocking. “You constantly live in a state of terror because you have no idea what they’re doing precisely and they don’t tell you,” Bush said. “But your home is at risk. Your family is at risk.” Located 40 miles north of Dallas, Denton sits atop the Barnett Shale, one of the largest natural gas deposits in the nation. The Barnett Shale is also home to the most intensive gas drilling operations ever attempted in an urban area. Now Bush is sandwiched between a gas well and a compressor station, and her […]

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Continental Resources said Wednesday production from the Bakken reserve area in the Northern Plains increased 23 percent year-on-year, though profits were down. The company said net production from the Bakken field, spread out over much of North Dakota and Montana, totaled 108,573 barrels of oil equivalent per day during the second quarter, an 11 percent increase from the first quarter and 23 percent year-on-year. Nearly 90 percent of the output came from North Dakota, where output increased 13 percent from the first quarter of the year. Continental boasted that cumulative oil production from the Bakken reserve reached the 1 billion barrel mark at some point during the first quarter. The company is the largest producer, driller and leaseholder in the Bakken field, which it says may be the largest oil field discovered in the world in more than 40 years. The company said its quarterly profit, however, was down […]

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The backlash against sand used in fracking operations should be a warning to countries looking to replicate North American success, an opposition group said. Energy companies in North America use a silica crystal during hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations. The practice involves water mixed with the fine particles and trace amounts of chemicals to create fissures in shale that release trapped oil and gas deposits. Companies mining the sand are growing, though there’s been a backlash against their operations. Last week, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources ordered a mine operator to shut down because of environmental concerns. The Price of Oil , a group critical of the oil and gas industry, said there have been corresponding health concerns with so-called frac-sand. The fine silica sand mined for fracking can cause lung damage, it said. The group said Wednesday the outcry over fracking now extends to sand, which should […]

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An advocacy group in Colorado said it withdrew initiatives aimed at regulating oil and gas work in response to compromise measures from the state’s governor. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said Monday he made a deal with the environmental advocacy community and those in the energy industry that would ward off initiatives that would have curtailed oil and gas drilling in the state. Instead, the governor said he created a task force that would oversee the issue in a way that would benefit residents and the state’s economy. Coloradans for Safe and Clean Energy, in coordination with Reps. Frank McNulty and Jerry Sonnenberg, both state Republicans, said Wednesday it withdrew so-called Initiative 88, which would require drilling rigs to be located 2,000 feet from homes, and Initiative 89, creating and environmental bill of rights, for ballot consideration. "Going forward the grassroots movement that has driven this campaign will remain engaged […]

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EOG Resources Bakken Acreage Map EOG Resources Bakken Acreage Map In its second quarter report,  EOG Resources  said the Bakken and  Eagle Ford Shale  plays were major contributors to EOG’s overall production growth. EOG’s U.S. crude oil production grew 33% year-over-year and associated natural gas liquids NGLs grew 22% year-over-year. See below for EOG’s U.S. production volumes for the quarter: Crude Oil and Condensate – 274,600 b/d NGLs – 78,500 b/d Natural Gas – 925 MMcfd The company said most of its activity was focused on its core acreage in Mountrail County during the quarter. According to company officials, well productivity improved due to continued refinements in completion designs. In EOG’s first-quarter report, the company indicated its activity in the Bakken would nearly double. So far, the company is on track to hit their target goal. Read more : EOG Resources Plans to Nearly Double Bakken Activity in 2014 […]

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| License Photo Despite some outside reservations, the energy industry said Colorado has the right regulations in place for oil and gas development. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced a deal with environmental groups and the energy industry he said would prevent ballot measures from curbing oil and gas development in the state. The governor said he created a special task force that would outline ways to develop energy resources safely. "Colorado is fortunate to have an abundance of energy resources, and we have an obligation to develop them in a way that is safe for our residents, supports jobs and the economy, respects private property rights and protects our environment," he said in a statement Monday. Oil from Colorado accounts for one out of every 50 barrels produced in the United States and output is on the rise because of operations in the state’s Niobrara shale basin. The state […]

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