Rich Nemec

There are several other plays and deeper formations yet to be tapped in the Bakken/Three Forks shale play, and the industry is still trying to determine how many total wells it will take to fully recover all the resources in the area, North Dakota’s chief oil/natural gas regulator, Lynn Helms, said Thursday during the final day of the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck.

While analysts and regulators continue to question rail’s role in U.S. energy transport, speakers at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, ND, on Tuesday predicted increased use of rail shipment as U.S. crude oil production grows by another 3-4 million b/d over the next five to seven years.

Coming off a 57% increase in crude oil sales in the Williston Basin in North Dakota in 1Q2014, Denver-based Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. executives are predicting the exploration/production company will slash its flared associated gas this year.

Tulsa, OK-based Oneok Partners LP footprint will continue to grow in North Dakota by another 400 MMcf/d of gas processing capacity now under construction to supplement an earlier 300 MMcf/d of new capacity at three separate locations, Oneok executives told NGI’s Shale Daily at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference, which began Tuesday in Bismarck, ND.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is seeking a new director for its safety and enforcement division to lead a staff of more than 200 inspectors, engineers and analysts. The unit has been expanded since the 2010 San Bruno, CA, natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion (see Daily GPI,July 26, 2013; May 13, 2013).

A London-based oil/gas analyst on Thursday predicted a longer-term price drop for Asian-Pacific liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, resulting from a combination of factors including anticipated U.S. LNG exports. For proposed West Coast export projects in the United States and Canada this could be problematic.

The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun the environmental review process for a major proposed multi-year oil/natural gas drilling project in east-central Wyoming that could force federal authorities to adjust their current species and habitat protection requirements. BLM is taking comments through June 30.

A federal judge has dismissed 13 of 14 lawsuits involving wellsite associated gas flaring aimed at North Dakota’s major oil/natural gas producers. The dismissal was on a procedural basis, claiming the mineral rights owners who brought the lawsuits have not exhausted their administrative remedies with the state.

In the state with the nation’s second-highest drilling rig count, Oklahoma elected and industry officials are considering an across-the-board hike of the tax on oil/natural drilling, but it would still be considerably lower than a counter proposal by a billionaire philanthropist in Oklahoma City.