Said

Living up to preliminary estimates earlier in the year calling for a 50-year high (see Shale Daily, Jan. 25), Colorado oil/natural gas officials released statistics showing oil production was up 22% last year, soaring past the 40 million bbl mark for the first time in a half-century at 47.9 million bbl.

MarkWest Utica EMG LLC has clinched an agreement with Rex Energy Corp. to expand its Utica Shale midstream infrastructure.

The Interior Department said Thursday it will offer 38.6 million acres offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama for oil and natural gas exploration and development in the Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 227 to be held in March. The sale could potentially result in almost 4 Tcf of natural gas production and nearly one billion bbl of oil production, according to the agency.

Halliburton, Apache Corp. and Caterpillar have developed a dual-fuel technology for using natural gas and diesel to operate pumping equipment used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at oil and gas well sites.

A total of 205 horizontal wells were drilled in Ohio’s Utica Shale through Jan. 5, and seven more were drilled in the state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale , according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

An expansion of Seaway Crude Oil Pipeline is nearing completion and will increase capacity from about 150,000 b/d to about 400,000 b/d, said Seaway Crude Oil Pipeline LLC, a joint venture of Enterprise Products Partners and Enbridge Inc. Seaway suspended service on its 500-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline to complete the remaining pump station connections. Service is expected to resume by Jan. 11. In addition to the pipeline that transports crude oil from Cushing, OK, to the Gulf Coast, the Seaway system is composed of a terminal and distribution network originating in Texas City, TX, which serves refineries locally and in the Houston area. The Seaway system also includes dock facilities at Freeport and Texas City. Further expansion of the system is planned to be completed in 2014 (see Shale Daily, March 28, 2012).

The U.S. Commerce Department has granted Valero Energy Corp. a one-year authorization to ship crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to a company-owned refinery in Quebec, Canada.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) settled a Clean Water Act (CWA) case for wetlands violations, requiring PDC Mountaineer (PDCM) to pay a penalty of $177,500 to resolve violations involving construction activities at Marcellus Shale gas extraction facilities in northern West Virginia. According to EPA, Bridgeport, WV-based PDCM failed to apply for necessary permits to discharge fill materials into wetlands or streams in Harrison County, WV. PDCM, which also agreed to restore and/or complete mitigation projects at four sites in the state pursuant to separate CWA orders, did not admit to violating the CWA. Earlier this month, PDC Energy reported that PDCM, a joint venture of PDC and Lime Rock Partners V LP, completed three horizontal Marcellus wells since mid-September. The wells were expected to be turned-in-line by year’s end, once a permit for a gathering line river crossing is received, PDC said.

John Hanger, the former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), said he plans to challenge Gov. Tom Corbett in 2014. Hanger, 55, would be the first of several Democrats who are expected to challenge the Republican governor. The attorney, who is special counsel at Eckert Seamans, served as DEP secretary under Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and was a commissioner on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission for five years. He also was president of advocacy group Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future. Hanger in early 2011 defended the state’s regulation of the natural gas industry, calling a story on drilling by a New York Times reporter “deliberately misleading” (see Daily GPI, March 1, 2011).