Referring

Gastar Exploration Ltd. achieved its goal of increasing Marcellus Shale production in northern West Virginia this year, and now the Houston-based company is setting the same goal for itself in the coming year.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday issued a conditional veto of legislation that would have permanently prohibited wells in the state from being hydraulically fractured (fracked). However, the Republican governor issued a one-year moratorium on the well stimulation technique and recommended that state lawmakers take up the bill again and revise it.

Referring to “significantly lower-than-normal system-weighted temperatures,” Northern Natural Gas issued a System Overrun Limitation for all market-area zones (ABC, D and EF) effective Saturday through Monday.

When politicians talk about “ownership,” they usually are referring to home ownership and invoking the American dream. But a gubernatorial candidate in Alaska is campaigning on the idea of citizen ownership of the state’s biggest dream: the Alaska gas pipeline.

When politicians talk about “ownership,” they usually are referring to home ownership and invoking the American dream. But a gubernatorial candidate in Alaska is campaigning on the idea of citizen ownership of the state’s biggest dream: the Alaska gas pipeline.

Referring to colder market-area temperatures and its need to maintain linepack, Tennessee is issuing an OFO Action Alert, effective Thursday, for all LMS-PA (including SA contracts acting as balancing parties), LMS-MA and LMS-PL Balancing Parties with meters located in Zones 1, L and 2. Affected parties are required to limit daily negative imbalances to 2% of scheduled quantities or 500 Dth, whichever is greater. Penalties will be 21.98 cents/Dth “for that portion of physical quantities related to underdeliveries by receipt point operators and overtakes by delivery point operators [that] exceed this tolerance,” the pipeline said.

With one Commissioner referring to it as a “king-like” endeavor, FERC last Thursday issued certificates for three projects that will make up the westernmost end of Rockies Express Pipeline LLC’s proposed $4 billion 1,663-mile pipeline that would transport Rocky Mountain natural gas to Midwest and eastern markets.

With one Commissioner referring to it as a “king-like” endeavor, FERC Thursday issued certificates for three projects that will make up the westernmost end of Rockies Express Pipeline LLC’s proposed $4 billion 1,663-mile pipeline that would transport Rocky Mountain natural gas to Midwest and eastern markets.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again could be Tri-Valley Corp.’s motto when referring to its Sunrise Natural Gas Project near Delano, CA. The Bakersfield, CA-based company reported Thursday that it has logged in excess of 2,000 feet of gas-saturated diatomite/porcelanite in its Sunrise-Mayel No. 2HR horizontal redrill. Tri-Valley said the well has all the log and geologic features expected and is scheduled for hydraulic fracturing in late June to liberate the natural gas at what Tri-Valley management expects to be commercial rates. The latest move comes as the third attempt by Tri-Valley to unlock what independent engineers have projected as a potentially immense amount of natural gas in place in the tight McClure Shale formation beginning at about 5,800 feet. The company noted that Independent reports on the nearly 300 vertical net feet of pay in the McClure Shale section show 40% porosity with 70% gas saturation, which calculates to about 80 Bcf of gas in place per 160 acres. On its own, Tri-Valley has mapped some 6,600 acres of closure on its leasehold and speculates as much as 3.3 Tcf of gas may be contained in the prospect area. In March, the company failed to produce at commercial rates at its Sunrise-Mayel No. 2H natural gas well because the zone had clay content that could swell and block gas delivery (see Daily GPI, March 7). The company notes there is still risk of commerciality and will give no estimate of how much might be recoverable until it has completed and tested the rate of gas deliverability from the well.