Horizontal

It didn’t take that long for the horizontal drilling technology and hydraulic fracturing stimulation technique that unlocked huge stores of unconventional natural gas to be transferred to the oil patch, and now oily producers face as bleak a future for prices and activity as their gassy brethren, energy analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said Monday.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration is reportedly working on a plan to allow horizontal drilling using high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in five counties in the Southern Tier of the state, but only in localities that support the practice.

Stimulating natural gas and oil production by hydraulically fracturing horizontal wells doesn’t pose a big risk for triggering earthquakes that are strong enough for a human to feel, but other types of energy-related activities could make the ground noticeably shake, according to the conclusions of major government science report released on Friday.

Stimulating natural gas and oil production by hydraulically fracturing horizontal wells doesn’t pose a big risk for triggering earthquakes that are strong enough for a human to feel, but other types of energy-related activities could make the ground noticeably shake, according to the conclusions of major government science report released on Friday.

Legislators and regulators in New York are hinting that should high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) be permitted in the Empire State, localities that are the most receptive to the practice may be the first — and, possibly, the only — areas to allow it.

Consol Energy Inc. began its shift toward liquids in the first quarter, moving into the wet-gas portions of the Marcellus and Utica shales of southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

Commissioners in Bradford County, PA — one of Pennsylvania’s most prolific counties for unconventional natural gas drilling — joined nearly all of their contemporaries in the Marcellus Shale and voted unanimously in favor of implementing the state’s impact fee on unconventional gas drilling on Thursday.

Ask and you shall receive.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed a landmark Marcellus Shale regulatory reform bill — also known as the Natural Gas Horizontal Wells Control Act — into law on Thursday.