Shift

Maryland’s Department of Environment (MDE) and Department of Natural Resources have released a draft report describing best practices for drilling and production that should be required if horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells is permitted in the state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale, which is confined to its two westernmost counties.

State regulators continue to be the primary overseers of shale natural gas development, but because of the speed at which the boom shifted — and continues to shift — the energy marketplace, the dynamic environment has created challenges for the energy industry and all of the stakeholders involved, according to a report by Resources for the Future (RFF).

Pioneer Natural Resources Co.’s first horizontal Wolfcamp Shale well in Martin County, TX, — the Mabee K #1H — has been placed on production with an initial rate that the company called “strong,” and an analyst following Pioneer said confirms prospectivity in the county.

The North American shale revolution “is now deeply entrenched,” and is expected to keep natural gas prices at “historically low prices for some time,” creating both long-term benefits and hardships for a variety of sectors and companies, according to a report issued by Moody’s Investor Services on Monday.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has postponed a lease sale in California that was scheduled for May 22 due to budget constraints, a shift in priorities to inspection and enforcement of existing leases, and processing of new applications for permits to drill. This was the only lease sale that the agency had proposed in the state for the remainder of the fiscal year.

As a natural gas-only utility in a relatively slow-growth area, NW Natural sees some growth opportunities in the shift to more gas-fired electric generation and in the increasing interest in compressed natural gas (CNG) for transportation.

A pair of U.S. senators from Kansas has renewed that state’s efforts to shift the responsibility for monitoring some underground natural gas storage facilities from the federal government to states, saying the modification would help avoid accidents at such facilities.

Scaling back from original plans for a shift to more natural gas-fired generation, Nevada’s major utility, NV Energy, has submitted to state lawmakers a plan for dumping coal-fired generation, but so far the plan has stirred a political fight.

Over the past 10 years natural gas has become the predominant fuel used to generate electricity in New England, a shift that has “provided clear economic benefits” for the region, but has also created “serious reliability threats to the bulk power system,” according to Gordon van Welie, CEO of ISO New England Inc. (ISO-NE).