Deeper

Efficiencies have made the onshore rig count not as relevant a data point as it once was, but digging deeper into the data shows what types of rigs are gaining favor and why, according to Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH).

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) said it will invest $107 million to expand its Kinder Morgan Crude and Condensate pipeline system (KMCC) deeper into the Eagle Ford Shale play in Karnes County, TX. The expansion, supported by a long-term contract with ConocoPhillips, will extend the 178-mile pipeline 31 miles from the KMCC DeWitt Station in DeWitt County, TX, to ConocoPhillips’ central delivery facility near Helena in Karnes County. Kinder Morgan will also build receipt tanks and a truck unloading facility adjacent to ConocoPhillips’ Helena facility. Construction is expected to begin in July. “This expansion further assists our commitment to deliver up to 300,000 b/d of crude and condensate from the Eagle Ford Shale,” said KMP products pipelines President Ron McClain.

Atlas Pipeline Partners LP stepped deeper into the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas on Tuesday with a $1 billion cash agreement to buy privately held Teak Midstream LLC, a natural gas gathering and processing operator.

Physical natural gas prices fell an average 3 cents overall in Monday’s trading, but that hid a much broader and deeper market decline. If multi-dollar advances on volatile Northeast pipelines are factored out, the market decline was just shy of 16 cents. Offsetting the Northeast strength were stout losses at California and Rocky Mountain points. After a weak open, May natural gas futures trimmed losses to nine-tenths of a cent to $4.015 and June eased five-tenths of a cent to $4.061. May crude oil fell 16 cents to $97.07/bbl.

Hoping to head off threats of a state moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Illinois state legislative, oil/natural gas industry and environmental leaders on Thursday announced agreement on a bipartisan bill (HB 2615) establishing rules on the use of the contested well stimulation practice.

In a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (EPA) Lisa Jackson Thursday, Republican Sens. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and David Vitter of Louisiana blasted the agency’s decision to again delay the public comment period on the controversial draft report examining groundwater contamination near Pavillion, WY.

Is the next U.S. energy boom following shale going to evolve around oilsands? A Canadian producer is testing the viability of the unconventional oil based on its work to date in Utah.

The re-emerging Mississippian Lime may be cheaper to drill than in some deeper formations, but an abundance of produced water has created a flood of innovative solutions by some operators.

The re-emerging Mississippian Lime may be cheaper to drill than in some deeper formations, but an abundance of produced water has created a flood of innovative solutions by some operators.