Designed

Anchor Drilling Fluids USA Inc. announced Monday that it has opened a drilling fluids production plant in Wellsville, OH, the first such facility in the state and designed to service oil and natural gas operators in the emerging Marcellus and Utica shales.

Two legislators in Ohio, well-known foes of shale development, have introduced a pair of bills designed to reverse a gag order that they say prevents medical personnel from doing their jobs as it relates to providing chemical information about hydraulic fracture (frack) fluids.

As the deadline for moving proposed bills out of finance committees came and went Thursday, the California state legislature again gave up on measures designed to more closely regulate hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Houston-based Chimera Energy Corp. has licensed a shale oil extraction technology that is designed to replace hydraulic fracturing (fracking) with a process that was originally developed for use in areas that were too cold for the use of water. Chimera is keeping details of the process under wraps “until the company has their patent in hand, some details about exothermic extraction of shale oil will be closely held,” according to Chimera’s website. The company only said that it does not use “acids or explosives.” Non-hydraulic extraction is “a cheaper and more effective extraction method that does not affect groundwater at all,” according to Chimera, which said it has put in place a procedure for engineering its new method for mass production, patenting, licensing and sales. Testing and third-party certification of the process has begun, Chimera said.

Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP’s Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP is holding an open season for firm capacity on its proposed Southeast Market Expansion, which is designed to increase the pipeline’s ability to move gas in the East Texas and Perryville, LA areas, to serve growing demand in the Southeast, including industrial and power generation markets in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Dozens of new natural gas vehicles (NGV), many of which are heavy duty trucks and tractors that can be designed for compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) started off Thursday on a cross-country road trip from Long Beach, CA, at the end of the three-day Alternative Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo 2012 conference.

In a story published in April, BP Expanding in GOM Deepwater, the initial gas processing capacity from the Mad Dog field was incorrectly stated (see NGI, April 16). The platform initially was designed to process up to 60 MMcf/d of gas and up to 100,000 b/d of oil. NGI regrets the error.

Perth, Western Australia-based Golden State Resources has received further verification it could be holding a significant shale gas play in the Golden Eagle field in Grand County in southeast Utah. The economics look good, according to a recent petroleum engineering consultant’s study.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) on Wednesday issued a final general air quality permit designed to cover production operations at natural gas wells in the state’s portion of the Marcellus and Utica shales.