2008

An investment manager organization that leads a coalition of shareholder advocacy groups for social and environmental issues says progress has been made in the third year of its quest to convince natural gas operators to be more forthcoming over how they are managing the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Quicksilver Resources Inc. said that its Barnett Shale subsidiary, Quicksilver Production Partners LP (QPP), has registered for an initial public offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

West Virginia has more taxes and fees on natural gas production than most of the 18 other gas-producing states included in an analysis prepared for a West Virginia Legislature subcommittee by the Marshall University Center for Business and Economic Research. However, it isn’t clear if taxes are hampering development of the state’s Marcellus Shale, the analysts said.

To the consternation of some environmental activists, the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association at the end of September took two steps aimed at revising a regulation established in 2008 for the handling of waste produced at drilling and production sites. The association alleges that the “pit rule” drives up costs and chases drilling rigs to other states.

For the first time since the recession hit in 2008, energy growth has been measured in Oregon, according to senior executives at Portland General Electric (PGE), who reported slightly reduced year/year earnings during a second quarter conference call with financial analysts last week. As a result, PGE’s latest plans call for increased natural gas-fired power generation — both peaking and baseload.

Industry spending in the Pennsylvania portion of the Marcellus Shale jumped from $3.2 billion in 2008 to an estimated $12.7 billion this year and could top $14.6 billion in 2012, according to a Pennsylvania State University study commissioned by the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

Natural gas distributors in Texas will soon have to develop programs that assess the risks of failures on their pipeline systems and prioritize equipment replacements under a rule adopted by the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC).

Pennsylvania’s shale plays “are an incredible opportunity” for the job-starved state, according to incoming Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, who declared that he and Gov. Tom Corbett “will send a message that Pennsylvania is open for business.”

The natural gas market is in “good shape” as it heads into the 2010-2011 winter heating season due to the influx of shale gas, which has reshaped the industry, and the addition of new pipeline capacity to access the lower-priced supplies, said a FERC analyst Thursday.