Shown

As the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale plays have shown, oil and gas wells go up long before there are enough homes for all the workers who flock to the energy patch for high-paying jobs. A study released Tuesday intends to lay out a strategy for Eagle Ford counties in South Texas to meet regional housing needs over the next 10-15 years.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has begun working with the state’s Attorney General’s Office to review allegations that Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Encana Corp. worked together to avoid competing in state lease auctions two years ago.

Nova Scotia said it will extend its review of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) until mid-2014, enacting a moratorium on the practice for at least another two years.

Enterprise Products Partners LP said Tuesday an open season has shown that enough shippers are interested in taking capacity on its proposed Appalachia to Texas (Atex Express) ethane pipeline to support the 1,230-mile project. The pipeline would deliver ethane from the Marcellus/Utica Shale areas of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

As state regulators continue to study a possible connection between drilling waste disposal wells in Arkansas’s Fayetteville Shale and a flurry of minor earthquakes in the area, the tremors continue unabated, including a 4.7-magnitude earthquake Sunday night and at least 19 measurable earthquakes on Monday.

Without losses from last summer’s hurricanes, U.S.domestic natural gas production — responding to high prices — would have shown a 1.4 Bcf/d or 2.7% increase over 2004, marking the largest production increase since 1994, according to a report by Bentek Energy LLC of Golden, CO.

“The overall damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has shown them to be the greatest natural disasters to oil and gas development in the history of the Gulf of Mexico,” said MMS Regional Director Chris Oynes.

Royal Dutch Shell plc said it will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that its shareholders had “adequately” shown reason for the court to examine allegations concerning restatements of its oil and natural gas reserves last year. The class action lawsuit by two pension funds was filed last year questioning whether Shell, and its executives and auditors purposely omitted important facts concerning the company’s restatements (see Daily GPI, June 28, 2004).

Western points, which had shown firmness in the face of an overall weaker market Wednesday, got back in step with the East Thursday in registering flat to moderately lower numbers. Declines reached as much as 15 cents. But despite a widely acknowledged lack of fundamental weather support, NGI sources expect Thursday’s screen spike following the storage report to be sufficient for generating higher weekend prices Friday.