Neighboring

Consol Energy has drilled its first Upper Devonian Shale well, in Greene County, PA, with results that bode well for the 300,000 acres it controls with commercial Upper Devonian potential.

With natural gas prices increasing, a joint venture (JV) in the Marcellus Shale has announced plans to build a dry gas pipeline across two neighboring counties in north-central West Virginia.

Despite ongoing statewide efforts, city and county governments in Colorado and California are coming up with local solutions to safe and sane hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Two jurisdictions are lifting fracking moratoriums.

The City of Dallas Plan Commission late Thursday voted unanimously to deny without prejudice an application by Trinity East Energy LLC for specific use permits to perform the first natural gas drilling within the city limits. The commission refused to recommend to Dallas City Council approval of the company’s plans to drill on two city-owned sites and one private site in northwest Dallas. The city-owned sites are in a floodplain, and the private site is near where a soccer complex is being developed. Drilling in a floodplain is against city ordinance, and council would need to amend the city’s floodplain ordinance before voting on zoning approvals for drilling. The city has yet to adopt a new ordinance to deal with gas drilling despite the completion earlier this year of a set of recommendations developed by the Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force (see Shale Daily, Dec. 10). Dallas City Council next month is expected to have the final say on Trinity’s request.

Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly were able to override Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of a bill to legalize hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on Monday after a voting error by a Democratic lawmaker.

Shaking off the economic barnacles of the recession better than some of its neighboring states, New Mexico’s oil and natural gas industry has come back to 90% of all-time peak activity six years ago, and it has done it mostly through ramped-up oil drilling chasing relatively high prices, according to a report released Thursday by an independent, nonprofit economic research firm.

Despite seeing some economic benefits from Marcellus Shale drilling in neighboring Pennsylvania, elected officials in the Town of Horseheads, NY, are considering a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in their community.

Despite seeing some economic benefits from Marcellus Shale drilling in neighboring Pennsylvania, elected officials in the Town of Horseheads, NY, are considering a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in their community.

The LaSalle Pipeline — DCP Midstream LP’s project to transport natural gas from the Niobrara Shale in the Denver-Julesburg Basin to markets in Colorado and neighboring areas — has been issued a favorable environmental assessment by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. DCP proposes to construct and operate 11.3 miles of 12-inch diameter gas pipeline from its newly constructed LaSalle Gas Plant in Weld County to a proposed interconnect with the Colorado Interstate pipeline. The line would carry up to 230 MMcf/d. The company expects to begin construction on the project by November for completion by March 2013.