Area

Quicksilver Resources Inc. has executed an agreement with the U.S. exploration arm of Royal Dutch Shell plc to establish an area of mutual interest (AMI) covering more than 850,000 acres of the Sand Wash Basin in northwestern Colorado.

Enbridge Inc. has committed up to $600 million to expand Enbridge Gas Distribution’s (EGD) system in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) during 2014 and 2015, pending approval of the Ontario Energy Board. “Over the last 20 years, Enbridge Gas Distribution has almost doubled its total number of customers across Ontario from 1.1 million in 1992 to 2 million in 2012,” said President Guy Jarvis. “We’re well positioned to benefit from continued strong population growth in the GTA…” The proposed project would consist of two segments of pipeline and related facilities to upgrade the distribution system that delivers gas to Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham.

Oil and natural gas operators working in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea area would have a negligible effect on polar bears and walruses, according to a federal appeals court, which on Tuesday backed rules issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

A report published Monday by the group Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States asserts that there is a link between dozens of small earthquakes in Texas’ Barnett Shale and wastewater injection wells that support natural gas drilling.

The Mississippian Lime formation, which stretches across northern Oklahoma, western Kansas and southern Nebraska, is drawing increased industry interest, thanks to cheaper drilling costs and shallower wells compared to North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, according to the “IHS Herold Mississippian Oil Play Regional Play Assessment.”

Residents of Pittsburgh and the 32-county area surrounding it believe drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale is both an economic opportunity for the region and a potential environmental and public health threat, according to the results of a recent survey conducted by PittsburghToday and the staff of the University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research.

Protesters aiming to “Stop the Frack Attack” were planning to hold a three-day meeting in the nation’s capital at the end of this week for obstructionist training sessions and lobbying of Congress, to be followed by a Saturday afternoon demonstration on the West Lawn of the Capitol.

Armada Oil Inc. has signed a geophysical data acquisition agreement with Geokinetics USA Inc. to conduct seismic testing on land in the Niobrara and Casper formations in southern Wyoming, the Houston-based independent oil and gas company said.

In an apparent bow to local opposition, a Texas company has withdrawn its proposal to build two injection wells for wastewater from oil and natural gas drilling in Mansfield, OH.