Resource

Talisman Energy Inc. on Tuesday set aside C$2.2 billion for North American exploration and development spending in 2007, with more than 90% of the money for natural gas projects. More than half of the amount will be spent on Talisman’s four core gas plays: the Alberta Foothills, Edson, Bigstone/Wild River and Monkman. Another C$130 million is set aside for its U.S. Appalachian play, and C$30 million will be spent on exploring new deep gas plays in the western United States.

In a state whose political and economic history has been shaped by water more than any other resource, California Public Utilities Commission member Dian Grueneich last week used her power as the regulatory panel’s assigned commissioner on the issue to order the state’s four major private-sector energy utilities to develop one-year pilot programs for stepping up water conservation aimed at cutting the large energy volumes used to produce, transport and treat water.

In a state whose political and economic history has been shaped by water more than any other resource, California Public Utilities Commission member Dian Grueneich Monday used her power as the regulatory panel’s assigned commissioner on the issue to order the state’s four major private-sector energy utilities to develop one-year pilot programs for stepping up water conservation aimed at cutting the large energy volumes used to produce, transport and treat water.

As part of the ongoing integrated resource plan (IRP) state regulatory proceeding, Nevada’s two major private sector electric utilities agreed in a stipulation earlier in September to modify their approach to natural gas price hedging. The state attorney general’s consumer protection bureau, Nevada Resort Association and Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) staff engineered the agreement with the utilities, which still must be approved by the three-member PUC.

Over the last few years Shell Canada Ltd. has acquired more than 300,000 acres worth of potential resource in the tight gas play around the Grand Prairie area of west-central Alberta. The company is now expecting to grow production from zero to about 100 MMcf/d by the end of next year and is well on the way to doing so, Ian Kilgour, Shell Canada senior vice president, exploration and production, said at a conference Wednesday.

Over the last few years Shell Canada Ltd. has acquired more than 300,000 acres worth of potential resource in the tight gas play around the Grand Prairie area of west-central Alberta. The company is now expecting to grow production from zero to about 100 MMcf/d by the end of next year and is well on the way to doing so, Ian Kilgour, Shell Canada senior vice president, exploration and production, said at a conference Wednesday.

“The industry’s acreage land grab of the last five years is largely over. Virtually every conventional and unconventional gas resource play in the U.S. is totally locked up. The winners for the next 10 to 20 years have already been chosen and the losers will pay the price for years to come for being left behind.”

“The industry’s acreage land grab of the last five years is largely over. Virtually every conventional and unconventional gas resource play in the U.S. is totally locked up. The winners for the next 10 to 20 years have already been chosen and the losers will pay the price for years to come for being left behind.”

Canada’s entry in the arctic natural gas pipeline race is still not out of the woods. Aboriginal consent, a key item for resource developers in the Northwest Territories, continues to elude the C$7 billion (US$5.6 billion) Mackenzie Gas Project.