Falling

Ten years on, drilling in the Barnett Shale has expanded the economy of the 24-county region in North Texas by 38%, according to a new study that said cumulative economic benefits of the Barnett from 2001 to 2011 include $65.4 billion in gross product for the region and $80.7 billion for the state.

October natural gas fell hard Friday in a sympathetic move with free-falling equity and oil markets. October lost 17.8 cents to $3.872 and November retreated 17.6 cents to $3.990. October crude oil fared as poorly, losing $2.48 to $86.45/bbl.

The Heinz Endowment is looking for another university or entity to host and develop its Marcellus Shale research programs after an apparent falling out with the University of Pittsburgh.

The Heinz Endowment is looking for another university or entity to host and develop its Marcellus Shale research programs after an apparent falling out with the University of Pittsburgh.

A rush for liquids-rich natural gas and tight oil embedded in dense rock formations, using shale drilling methods imported from the United States, is bailing the Alberta government out of sinking deeply into the red.

Drilling in the Haynesville Shale helped Louisiana more than double its natural gas production in April from two years ago, and production in the Lower 48 states increased 10.6% (6.66 Bcf/d) to 69.05 Bcf/d during the same time period, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) monthly natural gas report.

Production from the nation’s shale plays will grow to 12.2 Tcf in 2035, when it will be 47% of total U.S. production, up from 16% in 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) “Annual Energy Outlook 2011” (AEO2011), which was released Tuesday.

May natural gas futures opened higher Monday but quickly tumbled nearly 20 cents to land solidly in the loss column, as falling oil markets were able to tug natural gas lower. At the close May was off by 6.6 cents to $4.138 and June had declined 7.4 cents to $4.190. May crude oil swan-dived $2.54 to $107.12/bbl.

Falling in line with the recent trend of producers targeting more liquid shale plays due to the better economics, Hess Corp. announced it is paying $1.05 billion in cash to acquire 167,000 net acres in the Bakken Shale of North Dakota from TRZ Energy LLC.