Calling

Dry natural gas drilling in North America’s onshore, once a big calling for Houston-based Apache Corp., is off the to-do list until pricing improves, but with 60 rigs running in the U.S. onshore today — 58 targeting liquids targets — “we’ve got a very active drilling program going on right now, the most active we’ve been in some time in North America,” said CEO G. Steven Farris.

A coalition of organizations on Thursday delivered a letter to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation Commission (DECC), calling on the agency to undertake an environmental review of “any” applications for shale gas exploration using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) stimulation processes — the precise process to be used to develop an unconventional leasehold in Tioga County.

Pennsylvania House Speaker Sam Smith (R-Punxsutawney) accused opponents of shale gas drilling of spreading misinformation about Act 13, calling their claims that the law’s language on chemical disclosure would prevent doctors from treating their patients “outrageous.”

A Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field office in southwestern Colorado has released a preliminary environmental assessment calling for 21 parcels and 24,324 acres to be included in an upcoming natural gas lease sale. The draft assessment pared an initial proposal to include 22 parcels and up to 29,811 acres, mostly in Gunnison County, CO, in the auction, which is scheduled to be held Aug. 9. Under the BLM program, obtaining the leases is the first part of a multi-step process in which each lease holder would have to obtain a drilling permit, which would entail another environmental assessment of the individual drilling plans for each lease. It is all part of BLM’s master development plan and its use of multi-well development to help manage federal lease development. Before any exploration and development work can start, however, there will be site-specific reviews and analysis completed as called for under the National Environmental Policy Act, BLM officials said.

Capitol Hill lawmakers are calling on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to “immediately enact strong position limits” to curb excessive speculation in oil markets.

The moderate weather that has so far been the calling card of this winter will give way to lower temperatures, with colder-than-normal temperatures dominating the nation’s northern tier beginning in February, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI).

The moderate weather that has so far been the calling card of this winter will give way to lower temperatures, with colder-than-normal temperatures dominating the nation’s northern tier beginning in February, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI).

A coalition of environmental groups is calling on Pennsylvania lawmakers to take a new approach in their ongoing efforts to approve an impact fee on natural gas drilling in the state, either by starting the process over or dividing the omnibus legislation into four separate bills.

Corbett wants an impact fee, but his proposal is closer to the House version. Still, following the Senate vote, he offered limited praise for the measure, calling it “a significant step forward toward finalizing a strong and sensible Marcellus Shale legislative package…While productive discussions are ongoing and continue to resolve the various issues related to the Marcellus Shale, [Wednesday’s] action reaffirms the strong commitment of the Senate to achieve out common goals of safe and responsible natural gas development in Pennsylvania.”