Consistent

Ohio’s laws addressing old leases and conservation issues could pose some unique challenges to proponents of energy development in the state’s portions of the Marcellus and Utica shales, two attorneys with the law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP said during a presentation Wednesday.

Although keeping a lid on the details of the deal for now, Rex Energy Corp. said the Utica Shale joint venture it recently entered into with MFC Drilling Inc. and Abarta Oil & Gas Co. Inc. requires it to drill and complete one well and begin drilling two others by Nov. 15, and requires three additional wells each year until the company satisfies the carry obligation. The JV covers a three county region of eastern Ohio.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) on Monday published hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operating practices for shale and tight natural gas development to improve water management, as well as water and fluids reporting, across the country.

Supported by abundant unconventional natural gas and oil reserves, the United States and Canada will become “almost totally energy self-sufficient” by 2030, according to a new forecast by BP plc.

Shale gas is reviving the domestic chemical industry, has already sparked growth in exports, and going forward it will boost the U.S. economy through new jobs in supplier industries and other manufacturers benefiting from cheap, plentiful energy, according to the National Petroleum Council (NPC).

By 2020 exploration and development across the Marcellus Shale could generate more than $6 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue and employ up to 300,000 people across the region, according to Chevron Corp. CEO John Watson.

The estimates of the amount of natural gas yet to be unearthed through hydraulic fracturing or “fracgas” vary widely, but there is a “determined limit” on coal-to-gas substitution that is “far short of driving coal out of the power market,” according to a new study by members of the Yale Graduates Energy Study Group.

In the wake of a well blowout last month in the Marcellus Shale, a Pennsylvania Senate committee has approved a bill (SB 995) that would require companies to provide to state and local authorities detailed emergency contact information for all of their wells in the state.

June natural gas futures rose Tuesday as analysts saw the gain as consistent with movement within the market’s prevailing price parameters. Prices may take some guidance from the oil markets during a time when weather-driven fundamentals have minimal market-moving capability. At the close June had gained 9.2 cents to $4.246 and July added 8.7 cents to $4.303. June crude oil continued its journey higher rising $1.33 to $103.88/bbl.