Mancos

BP plc has brought online a “highly productive” natural gas well in the Mancos Shale of New Mexico, with early production rates said to be the highest achieved in the San Juan Basin in 14 years.

With a continuing vision of riding its Mancos Shale holdings to successful development, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp.’s CEO has reiterated the multi-state utility holding company’s desire to establish a series of utility cost-of-service natural gas reserve programs.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office in Colorado on Monday released plans to potentially offer in May 2017 up to 100,000 acres for oil and natural gas exploration spread over five counties in the northwestern corner of the state.

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT), chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, has urged the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to revise its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for previously issued oil/natural gas leases in the White River National Forest in Colorado to consider new reserve estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Colorado oil/natural gas industry advocates lashed out on Friday at the Obama administration for “completely ignoring” new U.S. Geological Society (USGS) estimates on the extent of potential reserves in the Mancos Shale along the Western Slope. In play is the industry’s long-held contention that leases on federal lands in the area should not be arbitrarily canceled.

The Piceance Basin’s Mancos Shale in Colorado contains an estimated 66 Tcf of natural gas, sharply higher than a 2003 estimate of 1.6 Tcf, becoming the second-largest assessment of potential continuous gas resources ever conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), officials said Wednesday.

With the close of its $1.89 billion acquisition of SourceGas Holding LLC and its utilities in multiple states earlier this year (see Daily GPI,July 13, 2015), Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. is a “pure-play utility” and all of its non-utility units, including its oil/natural gas exploration/production business, will transform to be supportive of the utilities, according to CEO David Emery.

With the close of its $1.89 billion acquisition of SourceGas Holding LLC and its utilities in multiple states earlier this year (see Daily GPI,July 13, 2015), Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. is a “pure-play utility” and all of its non-utility units, including its oil/natural gas exploration/production business, will transform to be supportive of the utilities, according to CEO David Emery.

Even though onshore production is rising, low crude oil and natural gas prices stung Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. during the second quarter, and it now plans to reduce capital expenditures (capex) in 2016 and 2017.