Turned

While New Mexico’s natural gas-rich San Juan Basin turned up another declining year of natural gas production in 2012, at least one exploration and production (E&P) company is “encouraged” by results so far this year.

While Mexico’s gas-rich San Juan Basin turned up another declining year of natural gas production in 2012, state officials and some exploration and production (E&P) companies are maintaining interest in the state’s overall oil, liquids and gas businesses.

An administrative law judge (ALJ) has turned down a request from two environmental groups to block Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co’s plans for an expansion of a natural gas pipeline in Pennsylvania, saying the groups “failed to show that they were likely to succeed on the merits or that they would suffer irreparable harm.”

In an operations update Monday, San Antonio, TX-based Abraxas Petroleum Corp. said a recent Eagle Ford Shale well turned in solid initial performance. The company’s third well in the WyCross area has outperformed a previous top performer.

Range Resources Inc., which two years ago turned away from the Barnett Shale and toward the Marcellus Shale, saw its overall production boom in 3Q2012, based in large part on a surge of Marcellus gas, according to CEO Jeff Ventura.

Range Resources Inc., which two years ago turned away from the Barnett Shale and toward the Marcellus Shale, saw its overall production boom in 3Q2012, based in large part on a surge of Marcellus gas, according to CEO Jeff Ventura.

Santos turned on Australia’s first commercial shale gas production last Friday at the company’s Moomba-191 well in the Cooper Basin.

Environmental questions and high costs for water have created a big headache for unconventional oil and gas producers, but it won’t take long before those problems are turned into opportunities for other businesses, according to industry executives.

Environmental questions and high costs for water have created a big headache for unconventional oil and gas producers, but it won’t take long before those problems are turned into opportunities for other businesses, according to industry executives.