Play

ExxonMobil Corp. has increased its hold in the Bakken Shale to nearly 600,000 net acres after agreeing to acquire Denbury Resources Inc.’s entire portfolio in the play, 196,000 net acres. The North Dakota and Montana properties had average production in the first six months of this year of about 15,400 boe/d, 88% weighted to oil and liquids.

With its oil and liquids-rich play, the Bakken Shale in North Dakota keeps attracting prospective drilling operations even as the formation’s overall rig count has declined slightly since January, according to the state’s latest monthly statistics at the end of August.

Improved well results experienced by Houston-based Crimson Exploration Inc. and other operators continue to demonstrate the economic viability of the Eagle Ford Shale in Zavala and Dimmit counties, TX, said Crimson CEO Allan Keel in announcing the company’s latest well results Monday.

Shale gas plays generally, and the still-fledgling Utica play specifically, are promoting the potential for a reemergence of the U.S. industrial sector, according to industry experts who spoke Monday at the opening of the LDC Gas Forum Midcontinent meeting in Chicago.

He insists he’s not supposed to be a cheerleader for the oil and gas industry he regulates, but when Scott Perry, deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Office of Oil and Gas Management, talks about the opportunities the Marcellus Shale has brought to his state, it’s easy to forget that distinction.

In response to the booming development in the Bakken Shale play, Kinder Morgan Interstate Gas Transmission LLC (KMIGT) is seeking FERC authorization to transfer a portion of its Pony Express natural gas pipeline to an affiliate to transport crude from the Bakken to key refinery centers.

One of the newer, smaller wildfires raging in Colorado sparked concerns Thursday about natural gas exploration and production (E&P) activities along the Western Slope in the Piceance Basin, but industry sources said there was no cause for alarm among citizens or fire-fighting officials. Any dangers are minimal because facilities can be shut in with the push of a button, an oil and gas official said.

Backers of the proposed High Prairie Pipeline for taking away burgeoning Bakken Shale play oil supplies fired two shots Tuesday in an attempt to untangle their 450-mile, 16-inch diameter pipeline project. They contracted with an anchor shipper for the line and filed a second complaint with a federal agency against Enbridge Energy Partners LP for blocking an interconnection of the proposed pipeline.

It will add to the hydrocarbon-rich state’s mitigation of flared associated natural gas supplies in the Bakken Shale play.