Footprint

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is doing “a lot” of experimentation in the U.S. onshore to determine how best to drill unconventional wells to ensure optimized estimated ultimate recoveries (EUR). What the management knows for sure is that the bigger the hydraulic fractures (fracks) the more a well can recover, said CEO Al Walker.

In separate announcements, Gulfport Energy Corp. and Seneca Resources Corp. reported that they are achieving encouraging production results from some of the first horizontal wells drilled in the Utica Shale.

Seeking to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint, the freight unit of Federal Express Corp. (FedEx) is beta testing an advanced liquefied natural gas (LNG)-only Class 8 truck engine in two new tractors used in the company’s Dallas, TX, service center.

The nation’s natural gas resources, which have grown with the expanded potential of shale plays — including as much as 20 years supply from the Marcellus Shale — can be used to cost-effectively generate electricity, and any environmental burdens will come primarily from combustion when the fuel is used, not when it is extracted, according to a report from the Department of Energy (DOE).

Royal Dutch Shell plc, which operates the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP), said late Monday its oilsands operations have achieved a production milestone of 500 million bbl since production began in 2003. Current production capacity has reached 255,000 b/d, Shell said.

The Perryville Hub in North Louisiana continues to raise its profile in the Gulf Coast region on the shoulders of Midcontinent shale gas production and growing gas-fired power generation demand in the Southeast. Pipeline operators are responding with efforts to streamline trading at the location with the expectation that it will become the supply-demand crossroads for shale gas and power plants.

In what eventually could be a breakthrough in reducing the carbon footprint of natural gas-fired and other fossil fuel power generation, the Shaw Group Inc. and Exelon have announced a project with an emissions control technology provider to demonstrate a potential zero-emissions process on a small-scale gas-fired plant during the next three years.

Williams Olefins LLC has awarded CB&I a $300 million contract for expansion of ethylene production capacity in Geismer, LA (see Shale Daily, Sept. 21, 2011). The award includes the license and basic engineering for the ethylene technology, the supply of the cracking furnaces and engineering, procurement, and construction of the expansion. Plant capacity is expected to be increased from 1.35 to 1.95 billion pounds per year. “The petrochemicals market is re-emerging in the U.S. due to the abundance of lower-cost ethane feedstock, directly attributable to increased shale gas production,” said CB&I CEO Philip K. Asherman. Ethylene, mainly produced via steam cracking, is the primary building block for the chemical industry and is used to produce a variety of products including plastics, fibers and rubbers.

Williams Partners LP on Monday agreed to pay $2.5 billion to buy Caiman Energy’s midstream business, giving it a much bigger footprint in the natural gas liquids (NGL) portion of the Marcellus Shale in northern West Virginia, southwestern Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. The two companies also are teaming up to build a midstream business in the Utica Shale.