Field

Bismarck, ND-based MDU Resources Group Inc. senior executives on Thursday reiterated that they intend to exploit their home field advantage in all lines of their business by digging deeply into the Bakken Shale play’s continuing robust growth. And they talked bullishly about prospects this year despite reporting earnings that were down slightly quarter over quarter and year over year in 2011.

CenterPoint Energy Field Services LLC (CEFS) has begun assessing routing for a proposed gas gathering and processing system in the Mississippi Lime of north-central Oklahoma and south-central Kansas.

Amid cries for Stronger safeguards regarding the public disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking), the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) on Monday put off for a week or more finalizing the state’s proposed new rules on disclosing fracking chemicals used in oil and gas shale fracking operations. COGCC heard more than 11 hours of testimony in Denver.

The first field demonstrations began Tuesday of a micro “fueling station in a box” technology for refueling compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered fleet vehicles at Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) utility, one of several public and private organizations participating in the demonstration.

Tennessee lifted an Action Alert OFO for all balancing parties in Zones 0, 1, L, 2 and 3. The OFO remains in effect for all balancing parties in Zones 4, 5 and 6, the pipeline said.

A Jefferies & Co. analyst this week cut his 2012 earnings forecasts and price targets by 30-50% for some of the biggest domestic onshore drillers and well service companies because he expects to see slower growth for oil and gas rigs.

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. and a unit of India’s Gail (India) Ltd. have closed on a joint venture (JV) that gives Gail 20% of Carrizo’s interest in about 20,200 net acres in the condensate zone of the Eagle Ford Shale for $95 million.

Hawk Field Services LLC (HFS), a subsidiary of Petrohawk Energy Corp., on Tuesday was fined $350,000, ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution and placed on probation for three years for damaging endangered species habitat in the Fayetteville Shale in Van Buren County, AR.

As part of its congressionally mandated study of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), the Environmental Production Agency (EPA) Wednesday said it plans to conduct field work in various regions of the country starting this summer to determine the potential impacts of fracking on drinking water sources (see Daily GPI, March 22, 2010).