With 125 days left in 2014, we find ourselves looking at What’s Next for the oil & gas industry in the Marcellus and Utica Shale Plays. It has been an eventful year and with just four months until 2015, we look forward and identify key conferences, symposiums and issues that are top of mind.
The Rockies Express (REX) natural gas pipeline, originally designed to transport gas from production centers located in the western US, has reversed some of its flow capacity in the opposite direction as a result of booming gas production from eastern shale resources like the Marcellus. Initially, a lateral pipeline extension will ship moderate gas volumes… Keep reading →
Coal and oil and gas producer Consol has agreed to sell its Consolidation Coal Company subsidiary, which holds five West Virginia coal mines, to Murray Energy for $3.5 billion. Consol aims to whittle its assets down to growth markets – natural gas production and coal for export – as the future of US power generation veers more… Keep reading →
NY Court of Appeals will decide whether state municipalities can use local zoning laws to ban hydraulic fracturing. Extent of Marcellus Shale Formation in NY State (Syracuse) On August 29, 2013, the Albany Court of Appeals announced its decision to consider two lawsuits challenging the authority of New York (NY) State municipalities to enact local… Keep reading →
Barclays is forecasting a long-term US natural gas price of $4.75 per million Btu, asserting that the $4.50-$5.00/MMBtu range is the golden mean that can both drive demand growth and ensure sufficient supply. “Natural gas prices at $4.50-5.00/MMBtu are high enough to motivate sufficient gas drilling to meet projected demand in the long run: a… Keep reading →
The NY State Assembly voted to enact legislation that would extend the moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing until 2015, aiming to facilitate additional health and environmental impact assessments.
On March 6, 2013, the New York State Assembly passed a bill to further suspend issuance of permits for high volume hydraulic fracturing until May 15, 2015. The bill passed with a vote of 95-40 and marks the Assembly’s third moratorium, following similar measures in 2010 and 2011. The industry currently awaits the release of DEC’s Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) and a subsequent ruling for permit issuance. Keep reading →
Summers in a Pennsylvania steel mill might seem like an unlikely place to find the future president of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers association, but that’s where Charlie Drevna got his start. Now, it seems prescient as energy and manufacturing become ever more closely linked in the US.
When Drevna was working the mills, they were manufacturing drill pipe for oil and gas production in Oklahoma and other parts of the country where conventional hydrocarbon resources were being produced in volumes that many expected were in terminal decline. Keep reading →
Plans to roll back parts of Pennsylvania’s controversial new law on natural gas development would make the state less attractive to energy companies seeking to develop the Marcellus Shale, one of America’s biggest gas fields, critics say.
Democratic lawmakers in the state House want to remove a measure in Act 13 that restricts the control of municipalities over gas development, and to cancel a section that requires doctors to sign a confidentiality agreement if gas companies disclose the identities of fracking chemicals to them. Keep reading →
Natural gas industry calls for relying on statewide standards of regulation received a setback when a Pennsylvania court placed a temporary injunction on a new law that limits local control over the industry.
Commonwealth Court Senior Judge Keith Quigley ordered on April 11 that local ordinances over zoning for oil and gas installations must remain in place for the time being, placing a temporary hold on part of Pennsylvania’s new Act 13, a wide-ranging law governing development of the Marcellus Shale, one of America’s biggest natural gas fields. Keep reading →
US natural gas pipeline companies added about 2,400 miles of pipeline as part of 25 projects in 2011, helping to improve service in congested areas including California, Florida and parts of the Northeast, the Energy Information Administration said on Friday.
The new lines increased capacity by 13.7 billion cubic feet a day, about the same increase as in 2010 but less than that in 2008 and 2009 when a total of more than 60 bcf of capacity was added to keep pace with increasing shale-gas production, as well as new LNG terminals and storage facilities. Keep reading →
