Encouraging

The Utica Shale holds an estimated 38 Tcf of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas, or less than half that of the Marcellus Shale, according to the first assessment of the Appalachian Basin play by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). An estimated 940 million bbl of unconventional oil resources and 9 million bbl of natural gas liquids (NGL) also are trapped in Utica rock, said scientists.

Apache Corp. on Thursday disclosed “encouraging” results from an exploratory drilling program in the emerging Whittenburg Basin in the Texas Panhandle, where five of six initial vertical tests were completed as “oil producers” in the Canyon Wash interval.

Despite a slowdown in the U.S. economic recovery, the outlook for the U.S. chemicals manufacturing industry is more encouraging because of low natural gas prices and abundant gas reserves, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

Despite a slowdown in the U.S. economic recovery, the outlook for the U.S. chemicals manufacturing industry is more encouraging, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

Shell Pipeline Co. LP received a “very encouraging response” in a nonbinding open season for capacity on its proposed Houma, LA, to Houston (Ho-Ho) oil pipeline system reversal, which would take advantage of growing oil shale production, the company said Thursday.

Early results, albeit preliminary and limited, indicate that the Niobrara play in southeast Wyoming is slow in coming to fruition, according to the state’s top oil/gas exploration and production official.

Because of new drilling techniques that allow operators to do more with less, federal officials in Colorado have more than doubled their initial estimate on the number of natural gas wells that could be drilled in the Gothic Shale in the Paradox Basin of southwestern Colorado.

The Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia (IOGAWV) said Wednesday it has launched a new alliance, Just Beneath the Surface (JBTS), to provide the public with information and debunk myths about the industry.

Results of core and petrophysical analyses from a well on Quebec’s Anticosti Island are “encouraging,” according to Corridor Resources Inc. and Petrolia Inc., which hold leases covering more than 1.5 million acres on the island.