Produced

Critics of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in California lament an alleged lack of information from the oil/natural gas industry, but producers are trying to counter what they consider to be gross misinformation on the drilling practice.

Six former presidents will be appearing in commercials supporting natural gas that will air in theaters before motion pictures this summer, thanks to a new advertising campaign by the American Clean Skies Foundation (ACSF), a nonprofit natural gas advocacy group.

While there are competing proposals to break through the bottlenecks to bringing rich gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) in the Bakken formation to market, the Alliance Pipeline and Aux Sable NGL systems think they have the inside track. In the meantime, a substantial amount of NGL movement continues through rail and trucking.

Endeavour International Corp. said it plans to spend 2012 focusing on developing its offshore oil assets and ramping up production in the North Sea while it waits to see the results from tight oil test wells drilled into the Heath Shale play in Montana.

The upstream industry could see its drilling inventory grow if horizontal drilling opportunities being explored by several companies pan out, according to analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc.

Calgary-based Progress Energy Resources Corp. is shutting in 10% of its natural gas production, which is all in Canada, until prices cooperate. The company produced an estimated 224.6 MMcf/d in 3Q2011. “We believe the current low natural gas price is unsustainable,” said CEO Michael Culbert. “Shifting capital to preserve asset value and maintain our balance sheet strength is prudent in this environment.” The Montney Shale-focused producer also is reducing its gas development spending to C$365 million this year, a reduction of C$100 million from the original 2012 capital budget. Progress Energy is jointly developing around 900,000 net acres in the Montney Shale with Malaysia’s Petronas (Petroliam Nasional Berhad). An associated liquefied natural gas export plan also is being studied (see related story).

Quicksilver Resources Inc. said that its Barnett Shale subsidiary, Quicksilver Production Partners LP (QPP), has registered for an initial public offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG) said low natural gas prices were forcing its Seneca Resources Corp. subsidiary to scale back capital expenditures (capex) on exploration and production (E&P) for fiscal 2012, which includes dropping two of its six drilling rigs in the Marcellus Shale.

President Obama, in his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday night, for the first time issued a strong call for development of domestic natural gas and oil as part of “an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy.”