natural gas prices

Goodrich Petroleum Corp. said two wells it completed in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) in Mississippi had peak 24-hour average production that met at least 1,000 boe/d, and it is in various stages of completing three additional wells targeting the play.

After decades of using costly diesel fuel in their exploration and production operations, some industry players are ramping up the use of their produced natural gas for U.S. shale play development, which is proving to be a cheaper and more environmentally friendly proposition.

Recognizing that his state has a long history of complex oil and natural gas drilling issues, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Thursday gave an initial pep talk to the first meeting of a 19-member task force charged with developing recommendations for addressing local issues regarding oil/gas development for the state legislature to consider early next year.

The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) reported the state had just under half of the active land rigs deployed across the United States in September, while one month earlier the number of original permits to drill in the state had increased more than 50%.

Chicago-based Trillium CNG and Ohio-based Heritage Cooperative on Thursday teamed up for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station in Kenton, OH. The station is part of Heritage’s $7 million Kenton Agricultural Campus expansion. Heritage, metal processor Precision Strip Inc. and the city of Kenton were part of the partnership in establishing the 24/7 Class-8 CNG fueling station. Trillium’s proprietary fast-fill hydraulic intensifier is used to fuel three dedicated CNG dispensers at the station. Precision Strip officials have committed to converting all of their fleet vehicles to CNG by the end of 2016.

Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told an oil and gas industry audience in Pittsburgh last week that digital security should be a top priority at their companies, adding that current policies are outdated and the threat of cyber attacks grows by the day.

Green Group Holdings unit GGH Wyoming LLC has opened its Grasslands Environmental facility near Bill, WY, to serve the waste disposal and water needs of the state’s oil and gas producers. The facility includes a pull-through commercial oilfield wastewater disposal facility, an industrial landfill, a non-potable water supply well, and two Class I injection wells. Grasslands Environmental covers 482 acres and will contain about 10 million cubic yards of permitted airspace for the disposal of solid waste generated by the oil and gas industry. The facility will offer disposal of produced and flowback water, contaminated soil, and industrial wastes. The design of the facility ensures that trucks are always moving forward to minimize backing within the facility. Another safety feature of the facility is active water transfer, meaning control over water is maintained at all times, ensuring there is no risk of losing containment, according to Green Group. Grasslands Environmental began fresh water sales in August and will begin accepting wastewater in late October, the company said. The industrial landfill and the deep well injection sites are in the permitting process and expected to be operational next year. Green Group specializes in the development of large-scale infrastructure, environmental permitting and operations for projects such as industrial parks, water supply facilities, transfer stations, facilities for processing recyclable materials, and solid waste landfills.

Strong gains swept through the physical market in Monday’s trading as a precipitous drop in next-day temperatures and a strong screen served notice to the bears that maybe their time is up.

In yet another sign of rising shale gas production and corresponding growth opportunities in the midstream sector, one of the nation’s largest utilities companies, NiSource Inc., announced a plan Sunday to spin-off its Columbia Pipeline Group (CPG) into a separate publicly traded company that would form a master limited partnership (MLP).