Takes

Halcon Resources Corp. is still figuring out the Utica/Point Pleasant play while it is making progress on well completions in the Bakken/Three Forks and adding acreage to its recently announced East Texas Eagle Ford play, CEO Floyd Wilson said Thursday.

Supporters and opponents of shale development in New York State will get their day in court on Thursday, when a state appellate court in Albany takes on two key cases that could ultimately decide how much power municipal governments may wield in regulating oil and natural gas activities.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tuesday released its first-ever rapid ecoregional assessment (REA), which takes a broad look at the ecology of the Colorado Plateau.

Is the next U.S. energy boom following shale going to evolve around oilsands? A Canadian producer is testing the viability of the unconventional oil based on its work to date in Utah.

The Mancos Shale plays in the Piceance and San Juan basins in Colorado and New Mexico are a potential gold mine of low-cost natural gas supplies, according to an executive from Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp., who spoke Wednesday to Wall Street analysts at the J.P. Morgan SMid Cap Conference.

As energy companies begin collecting production data from the few wells drilled so far in Ohio’s portion of the Utica Shale, a picture is starting to emerge that company executives and industry experts agree will determine how, where and when the play will ultimately be developed.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has launched a website to track oil and gas operations in the state, including those in the Marcellus Shale. The website includes reports on permitting and drilling figures, well inventories organized by county and operator, and violations. The DEP previously listed permitting and drilling information by month and production information twice each year, but the new website allows the public to view individual inspection reports. Additionally, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) recently created a website to help pipeline operators comply with new oversight requirements. Gov. Tom Corbett signed Act 127 in late December, making the PUC the “state agent” for the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration in Pennsylvania and giving the PUC oversight over most nonutility natural gas pipelines. Among other things, the act requires the PUC to create a registry of all nonutility gas and hazardous liquids pipelines in the state, and the website includes forms to help operators comply. The act takes effect on Feb. 20.

There’s enough water in the Carrizo Wilcox Aquifer in South Texas to support Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing as well as other uses, such as irrigation, according to the Eagle Ford Task Force. This is in spite of a drought that has gripped most of Texas, according to experts.

Saying it needed to protect system integrity and due to excessive hourly takes exceeding scheduled quantities, Tennessee issued meter-specific Balancing Alert OFOs Monday affecting two LMSMA contracts (71054 and 943030). They are required to maintain an actual daily flow rate not exceeding 2% or 500 Dth, whichever is greater, of scheduled quantities.