Shale

The Pittsburgh region is poised to enjoy freedom from foreign energy and a new era of self-sufficiency, thanks to development of the Marcellus Shale, according to a recent report.

The monthly check from Chesapeake Exploration LLC will still be in the mail to Barnett Shale royalty owners, but some of them will find it to be a little lighter than in the past.

DCP Midstream Partners LP will construct a 200 MMcf/d natural gas processing plant in the Eagle Ford. The $120 million Eagle Plant project will be supported by a 15-year fee based agreement to process the company’s natural gas volumes. The facility, which will compliment the company’s five existing processing plants and capacity of 800 MMcf/d in South Texas, is expected to be completed during 4Q2012.

The results of a long-awaited, million-dollar study of air emissions in Fort Worth’s portion of the Barnett Shale in North Texas are in and rather anticlimactic. While a handful of sites were found to have emissions exceeding regulatory allowances, setback requirements for natural gas facilities were generally found to be adequate.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has taken steps to lease the rights to drill for natural gas in the 43,000 acres of waterways that run through the Marcellus Shale region and to grant licenses for access to water.

The abundance of gas coming out of the Marcellus Shale is contributing to a situation on Columbia Gas Transmission that is pinching the pipeline’s storage operations in northern Ohio and creating oversupply on the western portion of its system, according to a recent rate adjustment filing at FERC.

The abundance of gas coming out of the Marcellus Shale is contributing to a situation on Columbia Gas Transmission that is pinching the pipeline’s storage operations in northern Ohio and creating oversupply on the western portion of its system, according to a recent rate adjustment filing at FERC.

Having been part of the shale natural gas supply revolution, Chesapeake Energy Corp. wants to “kick-start the demand revolution,” CEO Aubrey McClendon said Monday when the company announced a $1 billion venture capital fund — Chesapeake NG Ventures Corp. (CNGV) — to invest in companies and technologies to enable replacement of gasoline and diesel fuel with natural gas and gas-to-liquids (GTL) fuels.

Six major producers in the Marcellus Shale say they expect to recycle or inject all of their wastewater by the end of the year, according to information released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last Wednesday.