Potential

The bullish shale gas potential that has remained largely unexploited among Mexico’s rich hydrocarbon resources could be unleashed if Monday’s proposal by President Enrique Pena Nieto to open the nation to more shared private-sector energy investment ever becomes a reality.

With continued confidence that their proposed Gulf-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project will begin construction next year, Sempra Energy senior executives on Tuesday said they are looking for other market growth opportunities from the shale-driven U.S. natural gas supply boom.

Chevron Corp. unit Chevron Canada Ltd. has agreed to acquire all interests from Alta Energy Luxembourg S.a.r.l. and affiliates in the Duvernay Shale formation in west-central Alberta. The acquired interests cover 67,900 net acres.

Industry executives who recently offered Oregon regulators an updated natural gas outlook for the Pacific Northwest said they see faint signs of potential added gas-fired industrial loads taking shape, but flat near-term demand projections nevertheless dominated their forecasts.

The leading California state lawmakers bird-dogging proposals to stiffen the state’s oversight of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) brought a new issue to the table — acidization to unlock Monterey Shale oil deposits — during a state Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee hearing last month in Sacramento .

Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. said Monday it will market its Texas Panhandle oil and gas assets after having received unsolicited interest in the properties. A deal could garner $1 billion or more and would be “transformative” for the company, one analyst said.

A coalition of environmental groups led by the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club has called on FERC to reject Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC’s (Transco) Leidy Southeast Expansion project, saying there is no homegrown demand for it.

Halcon Resources Corp. said Monday it will be spending more on its East Texas Eagle Ford Shale play, known as El Halcon.

No place in the entire world has better dry or wet gas potential than the Marcellus Shale, now “four years into a 50-year play,” but ensuring that there’s enough infrastructure for adequate takeaway will take some time, a top Williams executive said last week.