Mmcfe

The management team at unconventional natural gas giant Encana Corp. has raised its cost outlook for both the United States and Canada and said last week the labor and supply markets are as tight as they’ve ever been. However, the company is fighting back by using cutting edge technology to drill wells in less time and at a lower cost.

SM Energy Co. and a unit of Japan’s Mitsui & Co. Ltd. have struck a drilling carry agreement in the Eagle Ford Shale that is worth $680 million to the Denver-based producer and is part of its sell-down in the South Texas play. Mitsui, which already has a Marcellus Shale stake, recently announced a deal in Poland, where it said it plans to apply shale lessons learned in the United States.

Jones Energy Holdings (JEH) has acquired all of the producing properties in the Arkoma Basin owned and operated by Southridge Energy LLC and Pablo Energy II, which includes 20 MMcfe/d of current net production and more than 77,000 gross acres located primarily in the liquids-rich fairway of the Woodford Shale in Oklahoma’s Coal and Atoka counties, JEH said Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Stung by a recent fine for allowing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluids to contaminate a watershed, Atlas Resources has set a goal of 100% reuse of flowback and production brine water as part of a strategy it believes is fundamental to sustainable operations in the Marcellus Shale.

ConocoPhillips during 3Q2010 curtailed about 180 MMcfe/d in North America, mostly in Western Canada, in response to continuing low natural gas prices, the producer said last Wednesday.

ConocoPhillips during 3Q2010 curtailed about 180 MMcfe/d in North America, mostly in Western Canada, in response to continuing low natural gas prices, the producer said Wednesday.

Questar Corp.’s exploration and production (E&P) unit, which continued to be hobbled by realized gas prices in 4Q2009, saw production jump to just over 600 MMcfe/d, up 46% from 4Q2008, driven by strong growth from the company’s Haynesville Shale, Woodford Shale and Pinedale Anticline plays.

Questar Corp.’s exploration and production (E&P) unit, which continued to be hobbled by realized gas prices in 4Q2009, saw production jump to just over 600 MMcfe/d, up 46% from 4Q2008, driven by strong growth from the company’s Haynesville Shale, Woodford Shale and Pinedale Anticline plays.

Lifted by its Barnett Shale operations, Quicksilver Resources Inc.’s total natural gas volumes jumped 40% in 2Q2009 from a year ago to 331 MMcfe/d, the producer said last week. Service costs, meanwhile, fell by a third from a year ago to $1.05/Mcfe.