Piece

Unconventional oil and natural gas resources are an increasingly bigger piece of the pie for domestic energy companies, according to a new survey.

Encana Corp. has unloaded another big piece of its natural gas-weighted portfolio, as promised, announcing last week that it is selling for $975 million its North Texas natural gas producing properties, which total around 82,000 net acres, to some partnerships managed by EnerVest Ltd.

For the time being at least, Marcellus Shale producers are paying the price for too much of a good thing. Concentrated development in the nation’s preeminent shale gas play has made for basis-inverting constraints on Tennessee Gas Pipeline. However, the industry has seen this sort of thing before (in the Rockies more than once, for instance), and the market will work it out, eventually, a Marcellus producer told NGI’s Shale Daily.

Arthur Brisbane, who acts as the “readers’ representative,” wrote an opinion piece in the Sunday Times following accusations by critics that the newspaper and reporter Ian Urbina had used “fear mongering” to criticize the industry, comparing it to a “Ponzi” scheme with a future like Enron Corp. or the dot-com bubble (see Shale Daily, June 28). Brisbane researched the methods used by the reporter and editors and followed up with his commentary.

Australian energy giant BHP Billiton Petroleum, better known for its Gulf of Mexico (GOM) development, chiseled off a piece of Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s huge U.S. portfolio in a $4.75 billion cash deal to acquire almost half a billion acres in the Fayetteville Shale.

Australian energy giant BHP Billiton Petroleum, better known for its Gulf of Mexico (GOM) development, chiseled off a piece of Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s huge U.S. portfolio in a $4.75 billion cash deal to acquire almost half a billion acres in the Fayetteville Shale.

RPM Energy LLC and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) have formed RPM Energy Partners LP to target joint venture opportunities with exploration and production companies in unconventional plays. They offer RPM’s expertise and KKR’s deep pockets.

TransCanada Corp. is poised to chalk up a success for northern natural gas development by giving aboriginal communities a piece of the action.

TransCanada Corp. is poised to chalk up a success for northern natural gas development by giving aboriginal communities a piece of the action.