Experienced

Concerns over natural gas development and its potential to cause earthquakes continue to linger in Johnson County, TX, after the area has experienced about 10 modest quakes during the last month.

Cash points dipped across the country Friday for Sunday and Monday delivery as the brutal heat being experienced in much of the country was expected to dissipate over the weekend. Market points could be in for a rebound Monday after August natural gas futures on Friday finished 10.2 cents higher at $2.824, up 15.6 cents from the previous week’s finish.

After getting a first hand look at hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale — and with a comprehensive study of the practice due out in her state later this spring — North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue on Wednesday said she believes fracking can be done safely.

Due in large part to prolific shale gas development, total marketed gas production in the United States in 2011 experienced its largest year-over-year volumetric increase in history, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook for February.

A nonprofit organization that conducts reviews of state oil and natural gas regulations has concluded that North Carolina’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has experienced staff but is not adequately prepared to regulate oil and natural gas activities.

Plains All American Pipeline LP’s Plains Gas Solutions experienced a fire Saturday at its Basile gas processing facility near Eunice, LA. One employee was injured and is in stable condition at an area hospital. The cause, extent of the damage and time required to repair the facility are not yet known. The Basile Plant is a 150 MMcf/d cryogenic processing facility. Neither the operation of the Basile Plant nor the fire have any impact on the operations at PAA Natural Gas Storage’s Pine Prairie facility, located nearby, Plains said. Additionally, there is no impact to area gas producers, third-party gas processing facilities or natural gas pipelines.

An Alaska North Slope exploratory oil well that experienced “a shallow gas kick” Wednesday morning did not cause any injuries, but workers were evacuated as a precaution. The incident occurred at the Qugruk 2 drill site near Nuiqsut, about 625 miles north of Anchorage.

Calpine Corp., which is one of the nation’s largest independent electricity generators, has experienced major impacts on its mostly natural gas-fired generation plant fleet from continuing low gas prices, according to senior executives who reported more red ink during a conference call with financial analysts Friday.

This year is the first in a multi-year period of growth for Noble Energy Inc. as the company realizes the payoff from “multiple years of exploration success,” CEO Charles Davidson told financial analysts Thursday during an earnings conference call. However, dry gas production from the Marcellus Shale is not part of the windfall, at least not for a while.