Core

Guidelines put in place last year by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to expedite the drilling permit application process have significantly reduced the agency’s backlog, DEP said Thursday.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said Tuesday four core U.S. onshore operating plays — the Wattenberg Field in Colorado, the Greater Natural Buttes in Utah, and the Marcellus and Eagle Ford shales — eclipsed production records in November, with each one exceeding a gross processed production milestone of 100,000 boe/d.

Teak Midstream LLC’s 200 MMcf/d Silver Oak cryogenic gas processing plant is now online in South Texas, along with 250 miles of gathering and residue delivery pipelines, the company said Tuesday.

A Dow Chemical Co. executive said he believes the chemical industry will need several additional Bcf/d of natural gas in as little as two-years’ time, when a long list of petrochemical plant projects begin to come online. It’s a demand that should be easy to meet, he said, as long as the United States hasn’t given away its competitive advantage in the marketplace — a gift from shale gas — through the undisciplined export of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Canada’s Duvernay Shale has the potential to become one of the “most attractive liquids-rich plays” in North America, according to Wood Mackenzie analysts, who point to ExxonMobil Corp.’s decision this month to pay $3.1 billion for one of the play’s biggest developers as affirmation.

UGI Energy Services Inc. and Capitol Energy Ventures Corp. have taken firm capacity on the proposed Commonwealth Pipeline, making them anchor shippers on the project, which is sponsored by Inergy Midstream LP, UGI Energy and Capitol Energy. The contracts are for 10 years at negotiated rates. Commonwealth would provide a path for bringing gas produced in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays to markets in central and southeastern Pennsylvania and the greater Mid-Atlantic region (see Shale Daily, May 8). The proposed interstate pipeline will consist initially of 120 miles of 30-inch diameter pipeline extending from the southern terminus of the Inergy Midstream’s MARC I Pipeline in Lycoming County, PA, to several points of interconnection in southeastern Pennsylvania with other interstate pipelines, including NiSource Gas Transmission and Storage, Texas Eastern Transmission Co., Transco Pipeline, and Eastern Shore Natural Gas Co.

During the first quarter Pioneer Natural Resources Co. grew production by 10,000 boe/d to 147,000 boe/d, a 7% increase from the year-ago period, thanks to growth in its three core liquids-rich assets in Texas: the Spraberry field, the Eagle Ford Shale and the Barnett Shale Combo play.

The large independent electricity generator has reactivated natural gas-fired plants in Texas expecting a profitable summer

A regional approach to siting drilling infrastructure in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale is needed to help minimize development in core forest and productive agricultural lands and to decrease potential risk to waterways, according to researchers at Pennsylvania State University. A study conducted by the university’s College of Agricultural Sciences found that shale gas development is causing rapid landscape change. “The development of new roads to support drilling could affect forest ecosystem integrity via increased fragmentation,” said Patrick Drohan, assistant professor of pedology. Drohan estimated that slightly more than half of the well pads in Pennsylvania are on agricultural land and most of the rest are on forestland. The study found that drilling is competing with food production for space on the landscape.