Poland

Poland’s efforts to reduce its energy dependence on a single supplier continued in 2018, with natural gas imports from Russia slipping more than 6% from 2017 levels as liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Qatar, Norway and the United States jumped by nearly 60%, state-owned oil and gas company Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo S.A. (PGNiG) said Wednesday.

Emphasizing the United States’ commitment to energy diversity across Europe, President Trump on Tuesday said a “tremendous” amount of liquefied natural gas (LNG) would be exported to Poland at “a really good price.”

In an effort to curb Russian influence on European energy supplies, the state-owned Polish Oil & Gas Co. (PGNiG) signed a five-year contract for liquefied natural gas (LNG) sources from Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana, with a British company making the cargo deliveries.

President Trump told representatives of 12 European nations gathered for a summit of the Three Seas Initiative that the United States is eager to build strong trade ties and export energy supplies to them, quipping “if you need energy, just give us a call.”

A group of Central and Eastern European ambassadors to the United States on Monday urged congressional leaders to greenlight U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe.

Denver-based Carbon Natural Gas Co. has acquired 2,300 gas wells and more than 900 miles of gathering pipelines and associated compression facilities in West Virginia for $9 million. Carbon, which targets mostly shallower formations in the Appalachian and Illinois basins, said those wells are producing 9.3 MMcfe/d. In a regulatory filing, Carbon said it purchased the assets from Exco Resources Inc. subsidiaries and the BG Production Co. Carbon acquired a 95% working interest in the wells, boosting its position to 487,000 net acres company-wide. The company said its average production would increase to 15.3 MMcfe/d with the acquisition. Carbon is traded over-the-counter. It entered a new $100 million credit facility to fund the purchase.

The clock is ticking for the United States to begin exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) before competitors corner the growing global market, according to Donald Raikes, vice president of Dominion Transmission Inc., one of the companies seeking permission to export shale gas.

Chevron Corp. is buying another 228,000 net acres in the Marcellus Shale from privately held Chief Oil & Gas LLC and Tug Hill Inc. for an undisclosed amount, which when completed would give the oil major an estimated 5 Tcf of additional natural gas resources in the hot shale play.

The North American drilling services market is tight and getting tighter, squeezed by increased activity in liquids-heavy and emerging shale oil plays, Baker Hughes Inc. CEO Chad Deaton said Tuesday.