Fair

Spring has brought out the Colorado frack fanatics on both sides of the growing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) debate as evidenced by the “Showdown of the Century” scheduled Wednesday in Boulder, CO, when pro- and anti-fracking documentaries and their writer/directors meet head-to-head (almost).

A continued overcapacity in land pressure pumping services, as well as no relief in natural gas pricing, will impact Halliburton Co.’s North American business again this year, CEO Dave Lesar said Friday.

Joining the race to transition a fair amount of swaps and over the counter (OTC) business to a cleared futures model before more rules under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act take hold in the coming months, CME Group last week launched a broad suite of new natural gas and power contracts that will be listed as futures on CME Globex, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) trading floor and CME ClearPort, and will be available for trading on CME Direct, a platform offering side-by-side trading and straight-through processing and clearing of exchange-listed and OTC energy markets.

Joining the race to transition a fair amount of swaps and over the counter (OTC) business to a cleared futures model before more rules under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act take hold in the coming months, CME Group on Monday launched a broad suite of new natural gas and power contracts that will be listed as futures on CME Globex, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) trading floor and CME ClearPort, and will be available for trading on CME Direct, a platform offering side-by-side trading and straight-through processing and clearing of exchange-listed and OTC energy markets.

A crowd of about 5,000 showed up recently for the third annual community picnic hosted by Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. at the Harford Fair Grounds in Susquehanna County, PA. Attendees included residents in the Marcellus Shale area, oil and gas industry representatives and their suppliers and a healthy contingent of Cabot employees manning displays from shale rock samples to compressed gas equipment.

The backer of a bid to hike the severance tax levied on natural gas producers operating in Arkansas last week submitted 69,717 signatures to a petition to get the initiative placed on the November ballot. Former gas utility executive Sheffield Nelson needed to gather 62,507 signatures. The signatures gathered have not yet been reviewed and could be challenged. Nelson wants to hike the severance tax to 7% from the current range of 1.25-5%. His opponents include energy industry members as well as the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce and anti-tax hike group Arkansas for Jobs and Affordable Energy. Nelson, a Republican who was a chairman of Arkla Inc. and a two-time gubernatorial candidate, is the leader of the Committee for a Fair Severance Tax (see Shale Daily, June 29).

The first glimpse of Utica Shale productivity in Ohio makes two things clear: Chesapeake Energy Corp. is leading the way and it is producing a fair amount of natural gas.

The first glimpse of Utica Shale productivity makes two things clear: Chesapeake Energy Corp. is leading the way and it is producing a fair amount of natural gas.

While 10% of its 2012 capital program will be spent to maintain dry natural gas activities — in anticipation of better days — EOG Resources Inc.’s focus is on oil and liquids, as it has been for about the last four years, CEO Mark G. Papa told financial analysts Friday during an earnings conference call when he waxed ecstatic about the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.