Drilling

Stoked by the San Bruno, CA, gas pipeline explosion in September and the anti-gas drilling film “Gasland” — as well as general not-in-my-backyard sentiment — Jersey City, NJ, officials are set to consider zoning changes intended to block a natural gas pipeline that Spectra Energy Corp. wants to build through their town.

In this “age of unconventionals,” shale gas and oil producers have to be as open as possible about their drilling operations, an ExxonMobil Corp. executive said last week.

Lower natural gas prices will have an effect on National Fuel Gas’ (NFG) bottom line in 2011, but the company will continue to ramp up its drilling operations in the Marcellus Shale during the year, CEO David F. Smith said during a conference call with financial analysts Friday.

It seems like everybody and their brother and sister has begun pushing more drilling capital expenditures into “oilier” shale gas assets, somewhat at the expense of the drier plays. What will it take to return some of the former luster of nearly all-dry plays such as Haynesville?

Wyoming has seen an increase in water-hauling activities in the southeast part of the state, mostly because of increased natural gas and oil drilling, typically irrigation or other large-scale wells, according State Engineer Patrick Tyrrell. Most of Laramie County, where the uptick in water hauling is happening, is a designated groundwater control area, which requires additional restrictions and conditions. Most activities may be accommodated with a permit for the hauling or a temporary use agreement, both of which may be obtained from the State Engineer’s Office. For information call (307) 777-6163.

New regulations to be implemented in Wyoming by mid-month will give the public more access information about the chemicals used in drilling operations by the natural gas and oil industry. The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) does not plan to compile and present the information to the public, but the information would be available on the website, officials said. Under the new regulations, operators would have to disclose information that would be listed on a well-by-well basis. The disclosures would allow the public to know “exactly” what an operator has pumped into a well if it is hydraulically fractured and would know what the discharges are composed of once well stimulations are completed, said Commission Supervisor Tom Doll.

Wyoming is set to implement new regulations in mid-September that would give the public more access information about the chemicals used in drilling operations by the natural gas and oil industry.

The U.S. government violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it sold drilling rights for oil and gas development off Alaska’s northwest coast, a federal judge ruled last Wednesday.

The U.S. government violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it sold drilling rights for oil and gas development off Alaska’s northwest coast, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.