Halliburton

The three biggest pressure pumping providers serving U.S. operators — Halliburton Co., Schlumberger Ltd. and Baker Hughes Inc. — are facing a class action antitrust lawsuit over alleged price manipulation, which comes two weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation.

Due to adjustments made by oil and natural gas service companies, Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee Tuesday said 500,000 gallons more of diesel fuel and fluids were used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) between 2005 and 2009 than were previously reported.

Under a state regulatory process established a little more than a year ago for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Wyoming has determined that trade secret compounds involving 146 separate chemicals, but not the chemicals themselves, have been granted confidentiality by the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC).

The “brute force” drilling process that unlocked North America’s shale deposits won’t easily be transferred overseas, Schlumberger Ltd. COO Paal Kibsgaard said Wednesday.

David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy, and Timothy J. Probert, president of Halliburton’s Global Business Lines, have been elected to El Paso Corp.’s board of directors. Crane, 50, will serve on the governance and nominating committee of El Paso’s board. Crane earned a bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School. Probert, 58, will serve on the health, safety and environmental committee of the board. He received his bachelor of science degree in geology and geography from the University of London in 1972 and is a member of the corporate advisory board of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.