An industry economic analysis report estimates that BLM’s revised draft of regulations governing hydraulic fracturing on public lands would cost at least $345 million. On July 22, 2013, the Western Energy Alliance and the Independent Petroleum Association of America released an analysis of compliance costs of the Department of Interior’s (DOI) revised draft rule… Keep reading →
While LNG exports from the US are hotly debated, major shale gas player Range Resources was recently excited to proclaim it will be the first company to export natural gas liquids via ship from the US. Range has an agreement in place to begin ethane shipments to a petrochemical concern in Norway beginning in 2015.
We have a sales VP in Europe now – they [NGL sales team] got a call from China and there’s interest in Pittsburgh,” Rodney Waller, Range Senior Vice President said at the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s Oil & Gas Investment Symposium held last week in New York. Keep reading →
US natural gas prices have begun to strengthen as oil prices have begun to drop, but both remain far from levels that would prompt exploration and production companies to shift capital back to gas from liquids.
For the past few years, with Henry Hub natural gas trading mostly in the $2.00-$4.00 per million Btu range, higher-priced and higher-margin oil and liquids have been the target of choice for US onshore drillers. But as natural gas prices have recently edged above $4.00/MMBtu and West Texas Intermediate oil prices have dipped below $90 per barrel, some analysts are questioning at what price levels gas drilling might look appealing, and oil or liquids drilling less so. Keep reading →
After turning down a purchase offer from a large company for a majority stake in more than 100,000 prospective Utica shale acres, upstream master limited partnership EV Energy Partners (EVEP) is finding that many of the buyers in the market have more of an appetite for smaller deals.
EVEP has been marketing 103,800 acres in the Ohio portion of the Utica shale spanning black oil, light oil, wet gas and dry gas zones. But the company recently turned down an offer from a large prospective buyer, citing unacceptable deal terms. Keep reading →
Devon Energy chief executive John Richels is confident that US President Barack Obama’s administration will approve the the Keystone XL pipeline, but he expects the gap between prices for Canadian heavy oil and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to narrow even if the pipeline never gets built.
“Keystone XL is going to be approved,” Richels told attendees of the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s Oil and Gas Investment Symposium in New York on Tuesday. “From a national point of view it makes no sense for the President not to approve that, and buy more oil from Venezuela and the Middle East.” The Keystone XL pipeline, as envisaged, would transport up to 830,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil from Alberta to US refineries. Keep reading →
One of the largest independent natural gas producers in the US, Southwestern Energy, is optimistic about the US natural gas industry outlook despite anticipated cost increases associated with upcoming EPA rulemaking.
Southwestern President and CEO Steve Mueller said his company was not concerned about fracking regulations, but described methane emissions as a “big concern” when fielding questions from Wall Street analysts at the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s Oil & Gas Investment Symposium in New York on Monday. Keep reading →
Upstream master limited partnership (MLP) Linn Energy’s strategy to attract a broader array of investors is likely to inspire other companies in the space to follow suit, but competitors will take at least a few years to emerge, according to chief financial officer Kolja Rockov.
Linn established LinnCo, a vehicle that exists solely to hold units of the Linn MLP, as a means of raising additional equity capital. Linn then launched an initial public offering of LinnCo shares – in part to be used to raise funds for acquisitions – in October 2012. Keep reading →
Low natural gas prices in North America have prompted many oil and gas companies to jettison their dry gas assets, Fort Worth-based Quicksilver is capitalizing on Asian buyers’ efforts to secure lower-cost LNG feedstock to attract joint venture partners for its acreage in areas like the Horn River and Barnett shales.
Quicksilver is in negotiations for a joint venture partner in its Horn River Basin acreage in Canada. The company appears to be favoring an Asian buyer with an eye to exporting natural gas across the Pacific. Keep reading →
Enormous finds offshore Brazil have drawn global attention to the promise of sub-salt oil and gas, but Houston-based Swift Energy is seeking to attract partners to a sub-salt prospect much closer to home.
Swift is seeking deepwater players as future partners in a potential sub-salt find in the “onshore” US Gulf of Mexico, under its Lake Washington field, which lies in water depths of 10-15 feet just off the southeastern Louisiana shore. It says the sub-salt prospect could hold as much as 350 million barrels of oil equivalent. Keep reading →
They took it right to the edge, but the US wind energy business managed to rescue the production tax credit around which many of their projects and manufacturing investments are structured. In the process Capitol Hill supporters of the sector rescued a claimed 37,000 jobs and the supply chain for a rapidly expanding form of power generation.
The effort to rescue the wind energy PTC and the also-extended investment tax credit (ITC) was not directly linked to the fiscal cliff debate, but became intertwined with the calendar-driven effort to prevent earlier tax cuts and credits from expiring without any replacement policy in place. The inclusion of the wind energy PTC, which was thought to be sufficiently likely to expire that companies spent significant sums as they rushed to turn on wind farms before the end of 2012, speaks to the expanded power of the wind industry groups in Washington, DC and the increased centrality of the wind energy business to major infrastructure and engineering firms with substantial US manufacturing operations including GE Energy, Siemens and Vestas. Keep reading →
