Deposits

Republican members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday unveiled a plan to further tap into prolific Marcellus Shale deposits by expanding natural gas drilling to 390,000 acres of state forest land over the next three years — a proposal one conservation group quickly labeled “irresponsible.”

CNX Gas Corp. plans to use the bulk of its 2008 capital budget to target natural gas deposits in the Marcellus, Huron, Chattanooga and New Albany shales, as well as the Trenton Black River this year. In the Marcellus Shale, CNX has a leasehold that includes about 161,000 acres. In Kentucky and Virginia’s Huron Shale CNX holds another 193,000 acre-leasehold. Tennessee’s Chattanooga Shale holdings number about 132,000 acres, and in the New Albany Shale play, which extends into Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, CNX has about 300,000 acres. The Pittsburgh-based company said that overall, exploration spending will jump 35% to $470 million from $348.6 million in 2007. Of the total, $377 million directed toward drilling, midstream and land operations in the company’s Virginia and Pennsylvania coalbed methane (CBM) development projects. Besides its gas shale plays, CNX also will be developing its holdings in the Trenton Black River, which is “thought to underlie nearly all of the Appalachian shales,” the company said. In that leasehold, “CNX Gas believes it has 486,000 acres with Trenton Black River potential.”

Independent producer CNX Gas Corp. said it plans to use the bulk of its 2008 capital budget to target natural gas deposits in the Marcellus, Huron, Chattanooga and New Albany shales, as well as the Trenton Black River this year.

The Barnett Shale of North Texas is certainly the most talked about natural gas play in the Lower 48. But similar gas shale deposits exist in more than half of the country, and private and public producers are quietly buying acreage in West Texas, Alabama’s Black Warrior basin, the Arkoma basin of Oklahoma and Arkansas, Michigan’s Antrim region, the Appalachian mountains and across Wyoming and Colorado in a quest to find the “next” Barnett.

The Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) royalty relief incentive to drill for deep-gas deposits located in the shallow-water shelf area of the Gulf of Mexico drew a hoard of bidders in Central Gulf Lease Sale 185. The shallow waters of the Gulf (0-199 meters) received by far the most bids in the sale: 374 bids on 1.7 million acres/hectares for $237.8 million.

The Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) royalty relief incentive to drill for deep-gas deposits located in the shallow-water shelf area of the Gulf of Mexico drew a hoard of bidders in Central Gulf Lease Sale 185. The shallow waters of the Gulf (0-199 meters) received by far the most bids in the sale: 374 bids on 1.7 million acres/hectares for $237.8 million.

Taking back gains achieved in Monday’s rally, natural gas futures fell Tuesday amid waves of fund and local selling. The February contract was hit hardest by the selling, dropping 14.4 cents to finish at $5.107. While natural gas remains in an uptrend — both on the intermediate and long-term charts, traders feel that the longer the market remains range-bound, the greater the potential for a significant downdraft when prices finally break lower.

Osprey Energy, headquartered in Bridgewater, NS, has begun an extensive onshore seismic program to locate potential oil and gas deposits north of Truro, NS. Osprey and its joint venture partner will conduct a month-long program over an 80-mile stretch from Debert to Parrsboro, part of the Maritime Basin, with the primary target the 70 kilometers of seismic lines in the Pennsylvanian Parrsboro formation. Early indications are that the region has potential reserves of up to 75 MMbbl and 345 Bcf. The area to be covered includes the Lower Parrsboro formation, which is about 850 meters thick, consisting of sandstone and shale. The Upper Parrsboro is about 1,800 meters thick and is similar to the Lower Parrsboro. The seismic program is gathering 6,000% fold vibroseismic data, which has been contracted to Kinetex Inc. The data will be analysed to create a subsurface geological profile, which will be integrated with surface geological data gathered over several years by the Geological Survey of Canada and the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources.

Adding to gains achieved in the overnight Access tradingsession, natural gas futures were higher at the open Friday astraders kept close tabs on a tropical depression that as of presstime Friday posed a threat to production platforms in the Gulf ofMexico. However, after etching a new prompt month high for thethird day in a row Friday morning, the October contract was hitwith a long and steady sell-off throughout the afternoon as tradersheaded for the exits ahead of the weekend.