Generally

The day-in and day-out reports from operators ready to build new natural gas pipelines and natural gas liquids (NGL) midstream infrastructure generally have had one thing in common over the past couple of years: most are for the Marcellus Shale. And that’s not going to change anytime soon, according to industry executives.

Consumers generally favor increased domestic energy production but have mixed feelings about the current natural gas boom, a recent poll by the University of Texas at Austin (UT) found. In particular, the survey illustrates how sharply divided the public remains over the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for well stimulation.

Canadians are generally opposed to the takeover of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. by China’s CNOOC Ltd., an arm of state-controlled China National Offshore Oil Co., according to a new opinion poll that showed practically four-in-five respondents believe foreign governments should not be able to control resources on Canadian soil.

Generally rising crude oil prices pumped up the drilling rig count (53) in California to a 22-year high in July, and a lot of the action is in “urban plays,” previously dormant or downplayed fields from the state’s rich history of oil and natural gas production that are suddenly stirring new drilling.

Shale gas plays generally, and the still-fledgling Utica play specifically, are promoting the potential for a reemergence of the U.S. industrial sector, according to industry experts who spoke Monday at the opening of the LDC Gas Forum Midcontinent meeting in Chicago.

Asian markets offer the best financial outlet for the abundant natural gas supplies in British Columbia (BC), the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) has concluded in a new report.

Over the last year or so hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has become a headline issue, and how one feels about it depends to a good degree on who one is. Generally though, as fracking garners more scrutiny the belief that it is worth doing hasn’t wavered much, a recent poll found.

Thirty-two of the dry natural gas rigs operated by Nabors Industries Ltd. in the Haynesville Shale have been redeployed to liquids areas “and we expect more of the remaining 26 to be diverted” soon, CEO Tony Petrello said late Tuesday.

Strange creature, this spot gas market. Prices rise for two days when generally mild weather doesn’t appear to justify it; then when heating load-boosting cold either begins to show up or is in the next-day forecasts, the climb falters Wednesday and all trading locations but one drop. Only two of the declines were by less than double-digit amounts.