Basins

The market for products and services to support companies plying shale gas basins in the United States will grow to about $50 billion annually in 2015 as development continues in the Marcellus, Haynesville, Fayetteville and other shale plays, according to a recent study.

Emergency responders were wrapping up their work Thursday afternoon at the site of a reported explosion at a drilling rig in the Eagle Ford Shale in Falls City in Karnes County, TX. According to press reports, two people had been hospitalized. The explosion reportedly occurred just before noon. The Karnes County sheriff was not available for comment, but a deputy said at 2:30 CDT that crews were preparing to leave the scene. The rig was reported to be targeting oil; the name of its owner/operator was not available at press time. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Jason Reyes told the San Antonio Express-News that a truck driver who was transferring oil was injured when a truck was set on fire and ignited the explosion. The driver received second- and third-degree burns, he said. In a separate incident Monday night an explosion and fire occurred at a Continental Resources natural gas well in Oklahoma; there were no injuries (see Daily GPI, Sept. 21).

The market for products and services to support companies plying shale gas basins in the United States will grow to about $50 billion annually in 2015 as development continues in the Marcellus, Haynesville, Fayetteville and other shale plays, according to a recent study.

Gasco Energy Inc. said Thursday it plans to drill two conventional test wells for oil this fall in the Green River Formation, part of the company’s plans to de-risk thousands of acres it holds in the Uinta Basin in eastern Utah.

With Marcellus Shale production growing exponentially, midstream players in the region are handling that additional supply in different ways, company officials told a Pittsburgh-area audience last week.

Following the trend toward liquids-rich basins, Penn Virginia Corp. recently announced plans to sell much of its Mid-continent assets to an undisclosed buyer for $30.5 million.

Furthering its plans to acquire approximately 3,650 net acres of Marcellus Shale leasehold, Westmont Resources Inc. on Friday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding for the acquisition of a 252-acre oil and gas leasehold in Pennsylvania’s southwest tier.

Unconventional gas supplies around the world, particularly those from shale basins, “may hold the key to expanding the long-term role of gas in the global energy mix,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report released Monday.

Active rigs in U.S. shale and tight sands basins gained 1% in the week ending April 1 to hit 981 rigs, up from 972 the previous week, according to NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count.