Impact

Production in North Dakota’s Bakken/Three Forks shale playscontinued to climb month over month in August, the most recent month for accumulating statistics, the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) reported. With more wells producing in August compared to the previous month (7,701 vs. 7,481), both crude oil and natural gas production exceeded July totals. Crude oil production reached 21.7 million bbl in August, compared with 20.9 million bbl in July. A number of wells remained idle as there were 8,495 wells capable of production in August, DMR said. As in recent months, the vast bulk of the production came from four counties: Dunn, McKenzie, Mountrail and Williams.

Bonus payments to landowners with oil and natural gas leases climbed to new highs during the third quarter, but they skyrocketed in Ohio’s Utica Shale, according to a survey by Farmers National Co. (FNC), a real estate management firm that also tracks data for landowners.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly and lawyers representing several state agencies filed briefs with the state Supreme Court on Tuesday, arguing that an appellate court erred when it said portions of Act 13, the state’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, were unconstitutional.

Researchers at Duke University have added their voices to the debate on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), saying in a report released Monday that the practice probably is not the cause of brine migration in the Marcellus Shale, but it could increase the potential for contaminating drinking supplies in the future.

All but two of Encana Corp.’s 35 shut-in natural gas wells were back in service Tuesday in the Piceance Basin as the danger from the Pine Ridge fire along the Western Slope in Colorado continued to subside. The two remaining shut-in wells are “low-producing” and located in the north end of the Piceance, an Encana spokesperson told NGI.

Despite a natural gas rig count that has declined significantly, production from the Haynesville Shale during June was climbing, which was reversing the impact of well shut-ins that began in February, an analysis by Bentek Energy LLC found.

Despite a rig count that has declined significantly, production from the Haynesville Shale during June was climbing, which was reversing the impact of well shut-ins that began in February, an analysis by Bentek Energy LLC found.

The first four in a series of 10 short films on energy from the director and producer of “Haynesville: A Nation’s Hunt for an Energy Future” (see Shale Daily, Nov. 23, 2010) debuted at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado this week.

It will add to the hydrocarbon-rich state’s mitigation of flared associated natural gas supplies in the Bakken Shale play.