Studies

A research team led by the University of Texas at Austin (UT) is collaborating with nine natural gas producers on a major field study to measure methane emissions at onshore gas well sites, about which only a handful of empirical data exist.

According to Canadian economic studies, natural gas prices have fallen far enough to justify fuel conversions of industrial engines, and a top supplier has set out to lure business consumers into making the switch on a large scale.

According to Canadian economic studies, natural gas prices have fallen far enough to justify fuel conversions of industrial engines, and a top supplier has set out to lure business consumers into making the switch on a large scale.

On the ground, the shale boom is a mixed bag as rural landowners weigh the alternatives of securing lucrative royalties at the cost of their land being part of an oil/gas industrial push that critics contend is threatening local environments and public water supplies. The Los Angeles Times last Sunday profiled the dilemma through a feature on two brothers with dairy farms in the rich Marcellus Shale in western New York.

A new study of private water wells in rural Pennsylvania found 20% to be contaminated with methane before Marcellus operations began nearby, but also found increased bromide levels that could be the result of natural gas drilling.

Encana Corp. has close to 11.7 million net acres from which to pick and choose for development in North America’s onshore, but the Horn River Basin in British Columbia (BC) is drawing special attention, in part because of the promise it holds for natural gas demand in the oilsands, as well as promising liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, company officials said Tuesday.

The cloud of confusion surrounding the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) recent estimate of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) contained in the Marcellus Shale — and the apparent differences between the USGS assessment and previous estimates — cleared somewhat Friday as the agency clarified its methodology.

A study of the biggest risks associated with hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking), as well as recommended policies to reduce those risks, has been launched by an arm of the nonpartisan Resources for the Future (RFF).

A report commissioned by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that technically recoverable shale natural gas resources in the United States are as much as 750 Tcf.