Chance

Energy patch communications services provider Texas Energy Network LLC (TEN) has purchased from Verizon Wireless lower 700 MHz A and B block wireless spectrum in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas. The wireless spectrum encompasses 28 counties and will allow TEN to offer service over the entire Eagle Ford Shale play, the company said. “…[I]t will allow us to provide a much needed service to our customers who have been requesting improved communications services in the oilfield for some time,” said TEN CEO Gregory M. Casey. “We intend to build-out our wireless coverage of the Eagle Ford shale region with a 4G LTE network as soon as possible to bring high-speed bandwidth to the region.” The company is currently building a network in the Permian Basin as well. Separately, communications provider ERF Wireless said in April it hired a contractor to build out two high-speed wireless broadband networks in two separate areas of the Permian Basin region adjacent to existing ERF Wireless networks. In addition, ERF Wireless is using its own crews to construct three new networks that are near the extensive terrestrial wireless network system already owned and operated by ERF Wireless in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. ERF is active in the Eagle Ford as well (see Shale Daily, Jan. 13, 2011).

As producers turned up the volume on their opposition to the federal government’s regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public lands, they caught a break in the long-awaited proposed rule that Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued Friday.

Private equity opportunists that took a chance on distressed U.S. natural gas assets helped to sustain merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the U.S. oil and gas sector in the first three months of this year, according to PwC US.

When voters in New Brunswick went to the polls last September, they were still fuming over the incumbent Liberal government’s failed attempt to sell the province’s public utility. Premier David Alward and the Progressive Conservative party were able to harness that dissatisfaction and won the 2010 election in a landslide.

Subfreezing lows will be left in the wake of an icy coastal storm moving out to sea, but Northeast residents will no doubt welcome the chance to finish cleaning up in relatively dry conditions after the devastating blizzards in the middle of last week. Thus Northeast citygates took nearly all of Tuesday’s price hits ranging from about 40 cents to the $1.50 area (the Florida citygate chipped in with a loss of about a nickel).

In the article “Slim Chance of Severance Tax in Pennsylvania” (see Daily GPI, Sept. 10), NGI incorrectly named the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor. His name is Tom Corbett. NGI regrets the error.

An abrupt defeat has been dealt to an attempt to stunt Canada’s Arctic natural gas pipeline and production project before it has a chance to grow.

An abrupt defeat has been dealt to an attempt to stunt Canada’s Arctic natural gas pipeline and production project before it has a chance to grow.

On one side of the country, ExxonMobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson Thursday cast doubts on whether natural gas stands much of a chance to penetrate the U.S. transportation market (see Daily GPI, March 12). Meanwhile, at the annual CERAWeek conference in Houston, auto and energy executives mostly expressed pessimism about how big the market might become.