Formation

Sweet spots in Alberta’s Duvernay Shale natural gas formation harbor 9.6 billion bbl of liquid byproducts and premium light oil, according to a new marketable resources appraisal released Tuesday by provincial and federal earth-sciences agencies.

Elected officials in Washington County, VA, approved a change to local zoning laws to open the county to natural gas development, which could include the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract natural gas locked in limestone, sandstone and some deeper shale formations.

Argentina’s state-controlled YPF SA has reached an agreement valued at $550 million with Malaysia’s national oil and gas company, Petronas, for the development of shale oil and gas resources in the Vaca Muerta formation, in Argentina’s Neuquen province, YPF said Thursday.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) should announce a new CEO by the middle of the month, according to the industry group’s chairman.

New wells in the Marcellus Shale kept natural gas production there on the upswing in May, but declines in several other areas kept total U.S. production to 81.84 Bcf/d, just 0.3% higher than the 81.61 Bcf/d reported in May 2012, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Pro-business Washington, DC, think tank American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) has a new paper extolling the benefits of exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) that it hopes will light a fire under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its export approval process.

The Marcellus Shale is still powering natural gas production increases, as reported by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), even though the agency continues to lump main Marcellus state Pennsylvania into the “other” category in its monthly production report.

In what is considered a symbolic gesture, Rochester, NY’s city council voted unanimously on Tuesday to extend by one year a moratorium on natural gas exploration and extraction activities, and in particular, hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Koch Pipeline Co. LP is holding a nonbinding open season for the Dakota Express Pipeline, which would carry crude oil from the Bakken Shale in western North Dakota to Hartford and Patoka, IL. A connection at Patoka to the Eastern Gulf Crude Access Pipeline to carry crude to Gulf Coast refineries is also contemplated.