Arkansas

Privately held Crestwood Midstream Partners LP has completed its acquisition of midstream assets in the Fayetteville Shale in northwest Arkansas and the Granite Wash play in the Texas Panhandle, the Houston-based company said. The deal was announced in February.

Privately held Crestwood Midstream Partners LP has completed its acquisition of midstream assets in the Fayetteville Shale in northwest Arkansas and the Granite Wash play in the Texas Panhandle, the Houston-based company said. The deal was announced in February.

A hearing at the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission (AOGC) to consider whether two saltwater injection wells in the Fayetteville Shale are related to seismic activity in the region has been postponed to April 26 from March 29 at the request of the injection well owners, Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Operating Inc. and Little Rock, AR-based Clarita Operating LLC. The wells are currently shut in and will remain so until at least the date of the hearing and maybe longer depending on what is decided at the AOGC. Both companies maintain that their wells are not related to a recent swarm of earthquakes in the area; however, since the wells were shut in, quake activity has declined somewhat (see Shale Daily, March 17).

The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission (AOGC) planned to hold an emergency meeting Friday (March 4) to consider a staff request that injection of natural gas drilling waste be halted at two disposal wells while a potential connection to earthquakes in the region is considered.

Oil- and liquids-rich natural gas plays marched to the forefront of drilling activity in the past year with the Niobrara, Eagle Ford and Bakken leading a 38% increase in active rigs from 684 active rigs a year ago to 947 rigs as of Jan. 7, according to a shale basin rig count compiled by NGI’s Shale Daily.

The Fayetteville Shale in northern Arkansas not only appears destined for sustained significant growth well into the future but commands some of the highest shale pricing around. One of the chief signals of these optimistic expectations was the Dec. 1 start-up of service on Fayetteville Express Pipeline (FEP), providing a major addition to takeaway capacity for the shale’s producers.

Among natural gas shale plays, the Barnett Shale in North Texas is getting a bit long in the tooth, but it can hold its own with the nation’s other shale plays when it comes to proved reserves.

Is the bloom coming off the Haynesville Shale rose because of its drier-gas nature, with a few producers announcing recently they will be refocusing exploration and production (E&P) efforts into “oilier” plays such as Eagle Ford in South Texas (see Shale Daily, Nov. 5; Nov. 4; Oct. 7)?

Companies in Arkansas would have to reveal all of the chemicals they will use during hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations at new natural gas wells in the state prior to fracking, according to rule changes being considered by the state’s Oil and Gas Commission (AOGC).