Formations

Extracting natural gas from shale formations using hydraulic fracturing (fracking) “has no direct connection” to groundwater contamination reports, based on a study of three big shale gas plays in the United States, the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) said in a new report.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead on Wednesday asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cooperate in a scientific review and analysis of groundwater quality in Pavillion, which federal officials assert may have been polluted by natural gas drilling and well stimulation practices.

In response to technical advances that have expanded Ohio’s hydrocarbon resource potential, The Ohio State University (OSU) has created the Subsurface Energy Resource Center (SERC) with a goal to conduct and facilitate relevant shale research.

The answer to some of the environmental concerns about hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Pennsylvania is a homegrown synthetic proppant that could be used instead of sand, according to Nittany Extraction Technologies, a company founded by two Pennsylvania State University engineering professors.

Shale formations are poised to create a renaissance in the U.S. petrochemical industry, Williams CEO Alan Armstrong said Wednesday.

Pipeline flows recorded by Bentek Energy LLC show that Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale region has surpassed the Fort Worth Basin/Barnett Shale region of North Texas in natural gas output. The two shale plays themselves are neck and neck in output. While it’s too soon to call a new Lower 48 shale king, all signs are that the Barnett will soon bow to the Haynesville.

Further punctuating the rapidness of the expansion in the Bakken Shale and Three Forks formations in North Dakota, Enbridge Energy Partners LP (EEP) began Friday to expand its takeaway capacity by 23,500 b/d in the area through reconfiguration of its system between Minot, ND, and Clearbrook, MN.

Natural gas drilling in West Virginia’s Marcellus Shale already has enriched the state through new jobs and more revenue and is on track to create up to 20,000 jobs by 2015, according to a study by West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER).

“The Haynesville formation has the capacity to be one of the most productive of the deep shale formations in the U.S.,” and Tenaska Capital Management LLC (TCM), an affiliate of Tenaska Energy Inc., plans to build a gas gathering system with multi-market capability to serve the East Texas play, the company said Thursday.