Knowledge

Energy operators are increasingly aware of competition, not just for drilling knowledge, but also for scarce global water supplies, Shell Oil Co. President Marvin Odum said last week in Houston.

A pair of attorneys with extensive knowledge of New York’s regulatory, business and geological climates said the rules proposed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) governing high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) won’t hamper development of the state’s shale plays, and they believe permits will be issued soon.

Asserting that a complete moratorium on shale exploration “would limit the potential” for research, the government of the Canadian province of New Brunswick said Tuesday it intends to continue to identify and act on the opportunity for greater scientific work to be done relating to shale gas exploration.

Several groups of Ohio landowners looking to lease thousands of acres in the Utica Shale believe their prospects are getting brighter now that the U.S. presidential election is over, oil and natural gas companies are starting to make moves and promising results are emerging from a well in Athens County.

The House Natural Resources Committee Wednesday authorized its chairman to subpoena five Obama administration officials who are said to have direct knowledge or involvement in the drafting, editing or review of an Interior Department report that recommended a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in May 2010 following the Macondo well blowout (see Daily GPI, April 22, 2010).

A study of the electricity needs in the oil/natural gas patch was funded Monday by the North Dakota Industrial Commission for upcoming work to be overseen by the state’s power transmission authority. Separately, the commission also authorized paying for another study of future natural gas growth in the state.

In a case pitting a Sullivan County, NY, homeowner against his property owners association (POA), a Sullivan Civil Supreme Court judge has permanently barred Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. from drilling in the residential subdivision, which is located in the Marcellus Shale.

Two bills aimed at revamping West Virginia’s quarter-century-old drilling regulations are slated for introduction in the state legislature this week. The measures, variously directed at water management and horizontal drilling, would also increase horizontal well permit fees from $400 to $10,000.

The Riverstone/Carlyle Global Energy and Power Funds Monday announced completion of the acquisition of USA Compression Holdings LP, the parent company of USA Compression Partners LLC, a natural gas compression services company headquartered in Austin and Dallas, TX. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.