Activity

Natural gas supplies are on the rise in British Columbia (BC) even though drilling, slowed by weak prices, has barely scratched the surface of the province’s northern shale deposits.

Robust crude oil production in August lifted the Texas Petro Index (TPI) to its second consecutive monthly record while the state’s oil and gas industry charted a new record as well. But a downturn in the number of drilling permits issued suggests that things might slow in the months ahead, an economist said.

The months that traditionally see the most tropical storm activity are still to come, but energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) may be breathing a bit easier after Weather Services International (WSI) again lowered its Atlantic hurricane season projections Thursday.

Almost half of the drilling in the U.S. onshore now is being done on multi-well pads, further moving attention from the rig and well count and more to horizontal footage drilled and the number of fractured stages per well, Halliburton Co. CEO Dave Lesar said Monday.

Low natural gas prices have driven down Fayetteville Shale drilling activity and production, but the Arkansas dry gas play has plenty more to give, and the rigs will be coming back to get it when natural gas has a $5 handle, the Arkansas Geological Survey’s Ed Ratchford told NGI.

Responding to Illinois’ tough new hydraulic fracturing (fracking) legislation, and with the potential for a surge of activity in relatively untapped shale natural gas deposits in Illinois, two colleges say they are planning an array of training opportunities for the emerging oil and natural gas industry.

The Boulder City Council in Colorado on Tuesday night unanimously agreed to impose a one-year moratorium on issuing new drilling permits, and it adopted on first reading a ban to use or sell water for oil and gas extraction.

Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. has agreed to purchase 42,000 net acres and associated production in North Dakota’s Williston Basin for $660 million in cash from Liberty Resources LLC.

Three storms in March failed to deter oil and natural gas operations in North Dakota, which set new all-time highs for the month, according to the latest statistics from the state Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).