Couple

So far, it looks like another mild winter is underway, but that is likely to change in a couple of weeks. A sudden warming of the stratosphere — six to 30 miles above the ground — in the North Pole is going to push cold air southward, according to AccuWeather.com.

A lawsuit filed by Range Resources Corp. against a Texas couple that accused the company of contaminating its drinking water may proceed, said the Texas Second District Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, which found that the lawsuit does not run afoul of a state law against litigation intended to stifle public protest.

The shale development frenzy of the last couple of years has cooled dramatically in recent months as natural gas prices, and more recently crude and natural gas liquids prices, have plummeted. Out of the 13 U.S. plays for which NGI’s Shale Daily tracks unconventional rig counts, nine are showing a lower level of drilling activity than one year ago, with most of them recording a drop of 30% or more.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has begun working with the state’s Attorney General’s Office to review allegations that Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Encana Corp. worked together to avoid competing in state lease auctions two years ago.

Natural gas and coal producers have a couple of gripes in common: mild weather and high stockpiles of both commodities. But they’re not likely to be seen drowning their sorrows together as gas continues to undercut coal on price and swipe market share among power generators.

Natural gas and coal producers have a couple of gripes in common: mild weather and high stockpiles of both commodities. But they’re not likely to be seen drowning their sorrows together as gas continues to undercut coal on price and swipe market share among power generators.

Onsite power with low emissions and maintenance is an increasing necessity for operators in burgeoning oil and gas shale plays, and a couple of Southern California-based manufacturers are seeking markets for their distributed generation devices (see Shale Daily, Dec. 28, 2011).

Wells Fargo analysts trimmed their peak ethane oversupply estimates by nearly 100,000 b/d based on a couple of factors, but they “continue to anticipate a period of ethane pricing weakness beginning in 2013 and persisting for several years until new world-scale ethylene crackers are placed into service,” they said in a note Monday.

One day after HB 401 — also known as the Natural Gas Horizontal Wells Control Act –garnered overwhelming support in both houses of the West Virginia legislature (see Shale Daily, Dec. 15), advocates for the shale gas industry, surface owners’ rights and the environment told NGI’s Shale Daily on Thursday that the bill isn’t all they had hoped for.