South

Drilling has begun near a small town in central South Dakota to develop shale core samples as part of a research project between the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and RESPEC, a Rapid City, SD-based engineering consulting company.

Denver-based South Dakota Proppants (SDP) is proceeding with plans to develop a mine on federal lands in southwestern South Dakota to supply sand used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for shale oil/natural gas production in the Williston and Denver Julesburg (DJ) Basins in North Dakota and Colorado.

Although South Dakota officials had been hoping to cash in on the oil and natural gas boom in the Williston Basin, there is little chance operators…

Flooded with natural gas from the Marcellus Shale and stung by the demands of this month’s repeat appearances of the polar vortex, Dominion Transmission (DTI) said it will limit north-south nominations on its system beginning no later than Feb. 1.

Flooded with natural gas from the Marcellus and stung by the demands of this month’s repeat appearances of the polar vortex, Dominion Transmission (DTI) said it will limit north-south nominations on its system beginning no later than Feb. 1, a decision that could have implications for drillers in the prolific shale play.

FERC on Thursday agreed with protesting shippers and soundly rejected a proposal by Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP to abandon nearly 2,000 miles, or about 25%, of its 7,241-mile system, selling pipeline segments and auxiliary facilities in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to affiliated non-jurisdictional intrastates.

ZaZa Energy Corp. recently struck a joint venture (JV) deal with Sabine Oil & Gas LLC unit Sabine South Texas LLC to jointly develop its Sweet Home prospect in the Eagle Ford Shale.

Pennsylvania State Universityresearchers who have been charged with monitoring 21 seismograph stations across the state are also reportedly studying the geological structure of the South Newark Basin. The $269,000 study is part of a federal program to research earthquakes nationwide, and was contracted to the university by theDepartment of Conservation and Natural Resources(DCNR) this summer, according to Philadelphia’sIntelligencernewspaper, which gathered the information through a series of right-to-know requests. In 2012 theU.S. Geological Survey(USGS) said the South Newark was one of three Mesozoic shale basins along the East Coast with the “most resource potential” for oil and gas producers (seeShale Daily,June 21, 2012). There is a 95% chance that at least 363 Bcf of undiscovered natural gas is locked in the formation, along with 1 million bbl of undiscovered natural gas liquids, USGS said. Following the USGS report, the General Assembly days later adopted a drilling moratorium for the South Newark Basin, which is located across upscale, ex-urban Philadelphia counties (seeShale Daily,July 3, 2012). The legislation forbid the state’sDepartment of Environmental Protectionfrom issuing well permits in the basin until DCNR completed a study of “the practical resource recovery implications” of the USGS report and the fiscal impact of oil and gas operations in the basin. Oil and gas operations in the South Newark Basin are already restricted by theDelaware River Basin Commission’s de facto moratorium on exploration and development (see Shale Daily,June 16, 2010).

Wyoming Gov. Matt Meadplans to travel to Taiwan and South Korea Oct. 9-20 to seek buyers for his state’s natural resources and agricultural products. Mead will address theWorld Energy Congresstriennial meeting in South Korea. He also plans to meet with South Korean utility leaders, who reportedly plan to increase their imports of coal by 250% during the next 10 years. Mead said South Korean interests are also looking to import both uranium and natural gas from his state.