Interest

The Mississippian Lime formation, which stretches across northern Oklahoma, western Kansas and southern Nebraska, is drawing increased industry interest, thanks to cheaper drilling costs and shallower wells compared to North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, according to the “IHS Herold Mississippian Oil Play Regional Play Assessment.”

Interest in building a natural gas vehicle (NGV) market in the United States remained in high gear last week with federal and state grant money dispersed for new projects and one operator using a unique three-day free “ride-and-drive” approach to draw new participants.

Oil and gas companies could be showing more interest in drilling wells targeting the Marcellus Shale in Wyoming County, PA, after having hired a seismic contractor to perform tests across nearly half of the county on their behalf.

Nationwide natural gas prices rose on average by three cents Monday as firm West Coast power prices helped boost interest in next-day gas, and eastern locations were led by a key Marcellus point. Futures prices gained on light volume as bulls were encouraged by the market’s ability to hold $2.30. At the close of futures trading June had risen 5.7 cents to $2.336 and July was up by 5.1 cents to $2.422. June crude oil continued lower dropping 55 cents to $97.94/bbl.

A district court judge in Texas has ruled that oil and natural gas production equipment used “below ground” is exempt from state sales taxes on extraction equipment.

(The following is reprinted with permission of Jim Willis, editor of Marcellus Drilling News (MDN). Jobs in the shale gas industry were the focus of the first ever Natural Gas Career and Education Expo held at Broome Community College in Binghamton, NY Wednesday. MDN editor Jim Willis attended and published a very interesting account. Unfortunately, NGI wasn’t there, but, thanks to MDN, our readers won’t miss out.)

Fueled by national oil companies and foreign interest in North America’s unconventional natural gas and oil, global merger and acquisition (M&A) activity hit a record high $75 billion in 2011, according to the IHS Herold 2012 Global Upstream M&A Review. The record-breaking amount represents nearly half (48%) of total worldwide upstream acquisition spending last year, IHS Inc. noted.

Sempra Energy plans to ride the growing U.S. bandwagon for exporting plentiful domestic supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) through a $7 billion joint venture (JV) and midstream master limited partnership (MLP) centered on its under-used Cameron LNG receiving facility in Louisiana, said CEO Debra Reed, who spoke to analysts Thursday in San Diego.

Shale gas at one end of the pipelines passing through Perryville, LA, and growing power generation and other demand at the other have heightened interest in streamlining trading at the North Louisiana Hub.