Concerns

Concerns over natural gas development and its potential to cause earthquakes continue to linger in Johnson County, TX, after the area has experienced about 10 modest quakes during the last month.

One of the newer, smaller wildfires raging in Colorado sparked concerns Thursday about natural gas exploration and production (E&P) activities along the Western Slope in the Piceance Basin, but industry sources said there was no cause for alarm among citizens or fire-fighting officials. Any dangers are minimal because facilities can be shut in with the push of a button, an oil and gas official said.

One of the newer, smaller wildfires raging in Colorado sparked concerns Thursday about natural gas exploration and production (E&P) activities along the Western Slope in the Piceance Basin, but industry sources said there was no cause for alarm among citizens or fire-fighting officials. Any dangers are minimal because facilities can be shut in with the push of a button, an oil and gas official said.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has agreed to settle a lawsuit with a group of landowners in Bradford County, PA, who allege the company’s Marcellus Shale drilling operations contaminated their groundwater supplies.

Natural gas is on the precipice of a global “golden age,” but it could easily collapse under the weight of public opposition to drilling unless legitimate concerns are addressed, officials with the International Energy Agency (IEA) said last week.

Natural gas is on the precipice of a global “golden age,” but it could easily collapse under the weight of public opposition to drilling unless legitimate concerns are addressed, officials with the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday released a draft of its long-awaited guidance to oil and natural gas producers on the use of diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Schlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton Co. executives last week expressed concerns about North America’s pressure pumping services market — and not just in natural gas basins. The move by North American land rigs and service capacity from natural gas fields to liquids-rich targets has accelerated, but the pricing weakness first experienced in the gas fields has begun to shift to the liquids plays, said Schlumberger’s CEO.

Continuing high natural gas production levels driving prices to the sub-$2 level raise concerns of an eventual production bust that could result in higher prices for producers, according to a market report Thursday by FERC’s Office of Enforcement (OE).