Huge

Energy patch communications services provider Texas Energy Network LLC (TEN) has purchased from Verizon Wireless lower 700 MHz A and B block wireless spectrum in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas. The wireless spectrum encompasses 28 counties and will allow TEN to offer service over the entire Eagle Ford Shale play, the company said. “…[I]t will allow us to provide a much needed service to our customers who have been requesting improved communications services in the oilfield for some time,” said TEN CEO Gregory M. Casey. “We intend to build-out our wireless coverage of the Eagle Ford shale region with a 4G LTE network as soon as possible to bring high-speed bandwidth to the region.” The company is currently building a network in the Permian Basin as well. Separately, communications provider ERF Wireless said in April it hired a contractor to build out two high-speed wireless broadband networks in two separate areas of the Permian Basin region adjacent to existing ERF Wireless networks. In addition, ERF Wireless is using its own crews to construct three new networks that are near the extensive terrestrial wireless network system already owned and operated by ERF Wireless in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. ERF is active in the Eagle Ford as well (see Shale Daily, Jan. 13, 2011).

Even with the huge Marcellus Shale, the high cost of natural gas vehicles and a lack of infrastructure to fuel the vehicles may deter growth in the state, according to the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.

In the wake of last week’s decision by the Argentine government to nationalize YPF SA, Moody’s Investors Service has placed Spain’s Repsol and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLC (M&N) under review for possible downgrades.

The “perma-bulls” at Raymond James & Associates Inc. have dialed back their assumptions for the U.S. natural gas rig count and giving in to the inevitable: low prices are taking down rigs in the gas patch. The good news: there’s “blistering” growth for oil and liquids drillers.

Two environmental groups in California have sued the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to prevent the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Monterey Shale play in north-central parts of the state.

Widespread development of natural gas export capability in the United States could be a huge boost to the U.S. economy, to natural gas infrastructure companies and to liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facilities that now are stymied by a disjointed global market for gas that currently has U.S. prices lagging below those in the rest of the world, according to Darcel Hulse, Sempra Energy’s outgoing CEO for LNG operations.

Widespread development of natural gas export capability in the United States could be a huge boost to the U.S. economy, to natural gas infrastructure companies and to liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facilities that now are stymied by a disjointed global market for gas that currently has U.S. prices lagging way below those in the rest of the world, according to Darcel Hulse, Sempra Energy’s outgoing CEO for LNG operations.

Land that Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has long controlled in northern Colorado in the Wattenberg Field holds a huge liquids-rich resource potential of 500 million to 1.5 billion boe net, executives disclosed last week. Separately, Noble Energy Inc., which controls 400,000 net acres in the play, said it has identified 1.3 billion boe of net risked resources with the potential for even more.

Industry experts told members of Congress that shale gas should be regulated by the states without interference from the federal government, while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tried to clarify its plan to develop national pretreatment standards for wastewater.