Fracture

Beginning Monday, producers will have to notify the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) two days in advance by e-mail of their plans to hydraulically fracture (frack) natural gas wells

Range Resources Corp., an early pioneer in the Barnett Shale that has since taken its estimable talents to the Marcellus, on Wednesday saw its share price jump almost 20% in early trading after reports surfaced that Royal Dutch Shell plc or another major oil company might make a bid for the company.

When it takes 75,000-100,000 bbl of water to hydraulically fracture (frack) a shale well, “the oil and gas industry is effectively a water industry and delivers oil and gas as a byproduct…so welcome to the water industry,” an environmental services executive told a Houston energy audience Wednesday.

The operators of two natural gas drilling waste disposal wells in Arkansas have agreed with regulators to keep the wells shut in while an ongoing study of their potential link to seismic activity in the area continues (see Shale Daily, March 17).

The North American drilling services market is tight and getting tighter, squeezed by increased activity in liquids-heavy and emerging shale oil plays, Baker Hughes Inc. CEO Chad Deaton said Tuesday.

Newfield Exploration Co. Thursday raised its 2011 capital budget to $1.9 billion from $1.7 billion set at the beginning of the year. The increase largely relates to leasing in “an undisclosed resource play,” said CEO Lee Boothby during a conference call with financial analysts.

Philadelphia officials on Tuesday directed the city-owned natural gas utility not to buy Marcellus Shale gas until more is known about the safety of hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking).

Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. has been fined $56,650 for three spills in September of a liquid gel used to fracture natural gas wells, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said. The spills, which occurred in one week’s time at Cabot’s Heitsman gas development in Dimock Township in Susquehanna County, forced Cabot to cease drilling activities in the region for around three weeks until it complied with a state order (see Daily GPI, Oct. 20; Sept. 28). “This penalty was assessed for Cabot’s violations of the Clean Streams Law, Solid Waste Management Act and Oil and Gas Act,” said DEP Northcentral Regional Director Robert Yowell. “We expect that Cabot will do a better job in the future of overseeing its contractors now that the company has an improved preparedness, prevention and contingency plan in place.”

The release Wednesday in Dimrock Township, PA, of an estimated 8,500 gallons of a gel used to fracture natural gas shale has been contained, according to Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials.