Performed

A petroleum geosciences professor said hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can be performed safely in New Brunswick, and believes that Canadian province and others will eventually establish appropriate regulations to govern the practice.

A trio of New York legislators opposed to high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) held court over a lengthy public hearing Thursday on rules that would govern the practice, but officials with the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) were not in attendance.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shale gas well hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations are significantly lower than previously estimated, according to a study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Despite earlier promulgations that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can be performed safely, North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue on Sunday vetoed a bill that would have legalized the practice and begun the process for its regulation.

The $45 million cost of a proposed study of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to be performed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) should be paid by the oil and gas industry, according to Sen. Al Franken (D-MN).

A Pennsylvania judge said he would try to render a decision by Friday (Oct. 7) over whether a controversial referendum banning hydraulic fracturing (fracking) should be placed on the November ballot in Peters Township.

Southwest Gas said pipe maintenance being performed near its interconnect with Transwestern and El Paso is not progressing as quickly as anticipated, causing the maintenance schedule to be extended. It is anticipated that the pipeline will return to service on Thursday this week instead of Tuesday (April 14) as previously indicated, Southwest said. Deliveries into Las Vegas from El Paso and Transwestern are not available while the work continues, the LDC added.

The oil and gas industry generates more than $7.1 billion a year for Pennsylvania, according to an economic impact study performed by the Pennsylvania Economy League of Southwestern Pennsylvania (PELSP). According to the study — requested by the Marcellus Shale Committee, an organization of oil and gas companies engaged in developing the Marcellus Shale — Pennsylvania’s economy benefits from the direct employment, compensation and output of the industry as well as from the impacts of the industry’s supply and distribution chain. For each of the 26,500 full- and part-time jobs the industry provides, another 1.52 jobs are generated, according to the study. The number of new oil and gas wells drilled in Pennsylvania was 4,148 in 2007, more than triple the 2000 total of 1,354, an increase the PELSP said translates into estimated spending of $1.2 billion on new drilling activity. The study found that approximately 2,000 companies operated a 79,000 active wells in Pennsylvania in 2007, with more than 200 companies each operating 100 wells or more.

While market liquidity declined, which corresponded to a decline in use of risk management tools, energy markets managed serious challenges and made marginal improvements during the period spanning from January 2002 through June 2003, according to FERC’s second annual “State of the Energy Markets” report.