Seriously

Nearly half of the U.S. oil and natural gas merger and acquisition (M&A) activity during the third quarter was driven by shale plays, according to the latest survey by consultancy PwC US.

Nearly two months into the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season three named storms have formed and none of them have seriously threatened energy interests, but forecasters at Andover, MA-based WSI Corp. say they still expect 15 named storms, including eight hurricanes, four of them Category Three or greater — the same as the 1995-2010 average — to form this year.

Shale producers should take seriously the questions and issues being raised by environmentalists and others with concerns about hydraulic fracturing (fracking), and be “open and transparent” about the composition of their fracking fluids, FERC Commissioner John Norris said Tuesday.

Leaseholders on the Piceance Basin’s South Shale Ridge in Colorado last week were said to be “stuck in a schoolyard fight” between environmental groups and federal agencies after a judge ordered all activity to a halt.

With the Democrats expected to retake control of the House and possibly even the Senate Tuesday, natural gas experts have started to seriously consider what this will mean for energy policy.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the chief energy policymaker in the Senate last Thursday called on the Bush administration to seriously consider opening the gas-rich Lease 181 areas in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to production, saying the action was warranted in light of a potential natural gas shortage and unprecedented high prices that were expected during the upcoming winter heating season. Top industry executives, reeling from the effects of the twin hurricanes, shared those concerns.

FERC Chairman Pat Wood said last Thursday that he believes the natural gas industry should seriously consider the use of independent data hubs for the collection and distribution of information on gas trades.

FERC Chairman Pat Wood said Thursday that he believes the natural gas industry should seriously consider the use of independent data hubs for the collection and distribution of information on gas trades.

The Bush administration “would seriously again study” its own moratorium on oil and natural gas drilling for an individual coastal state if Congress “signified that the state wanted to move off the moratorium,” the head of the Minerals and Management Services (MMS) told a Senate panel last Tuesday.