True

U.S. onshore horizontal drilling has improved steadily across every category, in part because of improvements in technology, but the “human experience factor” appears to be playing a substantial role as well in moving well times and depth curves to the left, according to an analysis by Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH).

Converting shale and tight sands formations into affordable natural gas and oil reserves have become the true “game changer” for the United States “because it changes the most important game in the world, the game of war,” according to global intelligence expert George Friedman.

If Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production is to reach its true potential, federal regulators must provide a “predictable review and approval process,” according to a report issued by Southern Methodist University’s Cox Maguire Energy Institute.

If Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production is to reach its true potential, federal regulators must provide a “predictable review and approval process,” according to a report issued by Southern Methodist University’s Cox Maguire Energy Institute.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. and GSI Environmental Inc. are questioning a Duke University study that found a link between hydraulic fracturing and increased cases of gas migration in northeastern Pennsylvania.

When Rex Energy Corp. announced in August that it acquired the rights to lease about 11,000 net acres in Carroll County, OH, for $40 million, the company said it was doing so to develop a prospect in the Utica Shale play and expand its acreage position there.

The government of Quebec announced Tuesday that hydraulic fracturing could continue in the province for exploration purposes only, after the release of a much anticipated report that urged further study of the practice.

Shale gas plays have been a magnet for energy deals, and that was even more true last year, which saw a record dollar value for upstream energy mergers and acquisitions (M&A), driven largely by shale-related activity, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

Sometimes what goes down keeps going down. That would appear to be true of natural gas prices. Wednesday analysts at Goldman Sachs cut their 2011 New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) gas price forecast to $4/MMBtu from $5.25/MMBtu. And just a day earlier Barclays Capital analysts were asking “Who stepped on my forward curve?”