Shale

As construction is completed on pipeline additions this year, the next stage is taking shape in a multi-year program to adapt the Western Canadian natural gas pipeline grid to spreading shale production.

Chevron Appalachia LLC and Peoples Natural Gas have joined forces on an initiative aimed at fully unlocking the economic potential of Pennsylvania’s shale gas.

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. has reached an agreement with an undisclosed buyer to sell for $62 million all of its Utica Shale assets in Guernsey County, OH, where it has nearly 26,000 net acres. The transaction is expected to close by the end of October. Carrizo earlier in 2017 said it would sell its Appalachian properties as they didn’t compete for capital with the core assets in the Eagle Ford Shale, the Permian’s Delaware sub-basin and the Niobrara formation. The company still has 16,000 net acres in the Marcellus Shale.

Pennsylvania’s natural gas drillers continue turning to quick, cheap production to increase volumes, with drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells accounting for nearly all growth through the first eight months of the year, according to the state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO).

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) plans to raise fees it levies on operators of unconventional wells, but did not say by how much.

BHP Billiton Ltd., whipsawed by sharp impairments and activist investors that want the company to train its development solely on conventional oil and mining, is actively marketing its U.S. onshore portfolio, an 800,000-plus leasehold that runs through the Permian Basin, Haynesville, Eagle Ford and Fayetteville shales.

A severance tax on unconventional natural gas production could be part of a final package to fund Pennsylvania’s state budget, said House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R-Indiana County), but not if that package also includes gross receipts taxes for gas, electric and telephone utility customers.

Weatherford International plc’s missteps and wrong turns, financially and management-wise, turned investors away over the last few years, but the company has a renewed purpose as it locks on to opportunities ahead, the newly installed CEO said.

Pennsylvania’s GOP-controlled Senate on Thursday put the natural gas industry on the defensive as it passed a revenue package to fund the state budget that includes a volumetric fee on production designed to generate an estimated $100 million annually.