Monday

Estimated global shale gas and shale oil resources represent 32% of the world’s natural gas and 10% of the world’s crude oil technically recoverable resources, according to an assessment released Monday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

As part of its multi-sourced, multi-year integrated resource plan (IRP) approved by state regulators three years ago, (PGE) said Monday it has signed deals to develop a 440 MW natural gas-fired electric generation plant in Oregon, along with new wind power and electric transmission.

A unit of General Electric said Monday it has completed acquiring substantially all of the assets of a Texas-based small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) design/manufacturing firm, underscoring a recent consultant report that the shale boom is creating a more viable market for natural gas in the transportation sector.

Gulf of Mexico explorer McMoRan Exploration Co. (MMR) is no longer a publicly traded stock after shareholders on Monday (June 3) approved a merger with a subsidiary of affiliated conglomerate Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. Under a friendly agreement in late 2012, Freeport agreed to pay close to $3 billion for MMR and more than $9 billion including debt for Plains Exploration & Production Co.; the Plains deal closed at the end of May (see Daily GPI, June 3; Dec. 6, 2012). Freeport Chairman Jim Bob Moffatt co-chaired McMoRan with Freeport CEO Richard Adkerson. MMR shareholders are to receive $14.75/share in cash, or $2.2 billion for shares not owned by Freeport, as well as 1.15 units in Gulf Coast Ultra Deep Royalty Trust, which would hold a 5% overriding royalty stake in future output from 20 specified ultra-deep exploration targets.

For use in its nationwide U.S. operations, Halliburton said Monday it has dispatched nearly 100 compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered light-duty trucks at several of its field locations. The original equipment manufacturers bi-fuel trucks are part of a pilot program that will touch all of its U.S. operations.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., whose central operations are in the Marcellus Shale, said Monday it plans to use natural gas to power hydraulic fracturing (fracking) equipment in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The New York State Petroleum Council (NYSPC), a division of the American Petroleum Institute (API), announced Monday that it would conduct the first of a series of free webinars about hydraulic fracturing for the public on Wednesday.

America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) plans to begin a nationwide advertising campaign Monday designed to get people thinking and talking about their energy choices, and to see natural gas as a “foundational fuel.”

Antero Resources LLC, the Appalachian Basin-focused powerhouse powered by private equity giant Warburg Pincus, said Monday net production in 1Q2013 jumped 114% year/year and increased 21% sequentially, primarily driven by 24 new wells brought online in the Marcellus Shale.