Footprint

Total SA wants to cook up some new deals in the U.S. shale patch, either through more joint ventures (JV) or on its own, a top executive said Wednesday.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved the proposal of Norway’s Statoil ASA, which already has significant holdings in the Marcellus and Eagle Ford shales, to acquire Austin, TX-based independent Brigham Exploration Co., which would give it access to the Williston Basin’s Bakken and Three Forks oily formations.

In all the hoopla surrounding the Marcellus Shale’s natural gas resources and its access to East Coast markets, it may be easy to forget that the Haynesville Shale was once the toast of the gas world. To Encana Corp., it still is.

There are more than oil/gas roughnecks benefiting from the growing boom in the Marcellus shale play; Pennsylvania banks are positioning themselves to share in the rewards, according to a report published in late June by an Arlington, VA-based investment bank, FBR Capital Markets.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says the worldwide amount of estimated recoverable gas has doubled over the last few years thanks to unconventional gas resources. The agency noted that a global race for unconventional resources is on.

The Eagle Ford Shale, where oil and natural gas development began in earnest less than three years ago, is making a big economic footprint in the 24-county South Texas area where it lies, according to researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).

As new technology has increased output and because of its small carbon footprint, natural gas will play a bigger role in the world’s energy consumption as long as government policies give the go-ahead to take over more demand, Royal Dutch Shell plc CEO Peter Voser said Monday.

Adding up to a big week for the Calgary-based oil and gas producer, Canadian Superior Energy Inc. in separate announcements last week said it is expanding its Western Canadian footprint through acquisition and has made a new natural gas discovery offshore Trinidad.

Vowing to reduce her state’s carbon footprint, a refrain ringing throughout the West these days, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire May 4 signed a new climate change law (SB 6001). The new statute sets enforceable limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electric generation plants, and it is expected to boost the development of natural gas-fired and renewable energy generation. Power plant fuel restrictions kick in next summer.