Town

Tempers flared Tuesday evening at a meeting in the rural Louisiana town of Pierre Part as the slurry churned in an Assumption Parish swamp, but everyone in attendance was told there was no danger of a natural gas or any other kind of explosion.

Two earthquakes that recently shook the area around the East Texas town of Timpson were unlikely to have been caused by natural gas drilling or drilling waste disposal activities, according to the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC).

The prospects for expanding natural gas exploration and production (E&P) on federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in eastern Utah were given a boost by the federal agency on Friday, although the action drew strong opposition from environmental groups concerned about the impact on a rugged wilderness area.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is reportedly considering raising severance taxes on oil and natural gas, new taxes for the extraction of natural gas liquids (NGL) and a new impact fee on oil and gas operations.

Producers operating in the Barnett Shale town Arlington, TX, will have to comply with new rules enacted Tuesday that call for greater drilling site security and improved aesthetics of drilling locations for future wells. Surveillance cameras will be required at drilling locations, and the use of diesel-powered rigs is banned within 450 feet of residences and other designated places. The vote was 7-0 in favor of the ordinance revision with one council member absent and one seat unfilled. Previously, some members had expressed reservations about the changes, saying they might be too onerous for the industry. One change that favors drillers is the allowance of concurrent applications for specific-use permits and gas well permits. Council initially approved the rules last month (see Shale Daily, Nov. 21).

FERC Friday approved Empire Pipeline Inc.’s request to begin service on its Tioga County Extension to transport Marcellus Shale production in Pennsylvania to the U.S.-Canadian border.

The chief of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said Thursday he was considering whether to extend a 60-day comment period on DEC’s hydraulic fracturing (fracking) report, which was issued in July.

There was a new tropical storm in town Tuesday, but it failed to impact the gas market. Prices again were flat to slightly higher in most cases as forecasts remained hot in many areas but were easing downward in such key consuming regions as the Northeast and Midwest. The previous day’s 4.3-cent futures gain helped keep a floor under much of the market.

The United States in 2010 led the world in natural gas production for the second year in a row, boosted by massive shale deposits, according to the latest statistical review by BP plc.