2006

Ethane and propane spot prices during the second half of last year were near or below the bottom of their 2006-2010 range due to an overabundance of supply, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Tuesday.

Randy Eresman, who has led Encana Corp. since 2006, suddenly resigned on Friday, fueling speculation about whether he jumped or was pushed out of the boardroom.

After more than a century of production from conventional pools, astronomical volumes still await the new methods of extracting natural gas and oil from Alberta’s shale, according to provincial earth scientists.

A panel of outside experts that will help conduct a health impact analysis of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) in New York are not yet under contract, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joseph Martens said Friday.

Representatives from a unit of BP plc began signing agreements with landowners in Trumbull County, OH, as the company readies to begin exploring its Utica/Point Pleasant Shale leasehold in 2013. In March BP completed an agreement with the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley to lease close to 84,000 acres in an unexplored area of the county, which is in the northeastern part of the state (see Shale Daily, March 28). With the agreements now in place, BP is executing individual terms with landowners, which may take up to six months. BP’s Ohio shale purchase moved it into ninth place among Utica/Point Pleasant leaseholders, according to data compiled from company reports by NGI’s Shale Daily. The top leaseholder is Chesapeake Energy Corp., which has an estimated 1.2 million net acres, followed by EnerVest and EV Energy Partners, which together lease an estimated 760,000 net acres. Chevron Corp. follows with 600,000 net acres.

A Los Angeles-based husband-wife independent filmmaking team said Tuesday they have exceeded their fundraising goal and will continue with production of a pro-hydraulic fracturing (fracking) documentary film, FrackNation, to combat an upcoming sequel to the Oscar-nominated anti-fracking film Gasland by activist Josh Fox. The couple, however, will continue to fundraise for their project, they said.

Companies participating in NGI’s quarterly North American natural gas marketer survey reported nearly the same results in 4Q2011 as in the year-ago period, and a 1% decline in full-year 2011, compared with 2010. read more

Two environmental groups are asking the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reconsider its decision to allow WPX Energy Inc. to drill unconventional natural gas wells into the Mancos Shale play in northwest New Mexico’s San Juan Basin.

Irish ex patriot journalist/filmmakers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer call their project “the film that will tell the truth about fracking,” on their website, which includes the slogan, “There are two sides to every story, and then there is the truth.”