Unusual

In an unusual reach by local government, the Forward Township Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to enact an ordinance regulating natural gas transmission and gathering pipelines built in the municipality, located in Allegheny County, PA.

During the third quarter Irving, TX-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. set a new production record in the Eagle Ford Shale, where it said its choke management program continues to improve well performance. Continued development of the Wolfcamp Shale in West Texas is setting the play up to be a “significant” contributor to production growth in the future, the company said.

The war of words over hydraulic fracturing (fracking) took an unusual turn recently when Brecksville, OH-based Duck Creek Energy Inc. filed a lawsuit against two anti-fracking activists, claiming that they have “spread false and defamatory information” about the company and one of its products.

Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. reported a 9% sequential increase in production for the fourth quarter and attributed the success to “three core liquids-rich growth assets in Texas.” In light of low prices for dry gas, the company has tweaked some of its drilling plans while it continues to high-grade liquids-rich drilling.

Encana Oil & Gas (USA), owner of a natural gas field in Pavillion, WY, that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims is contaminated by chemicals used in production practices (including hydraulic fracturing, or fracking), has called on the agency to suspend the public comment period on a draft report issued in December.

After weathering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s draft report late last week, which claimed that the groundwater in Pavillion, WY, contains chemicals that are normally used in natural gas production practices, such as hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., a subsidiary of Encana Corp., went on offense Monday, noting that many of the EPA’s findings from its recent deep monitoring wells, including those related to any potential connection between fracking and Pavillion groundwater quality, “are conjecture, not factual, and only serve to trigger undue alarm.”

Natural gas has gotten a ringing endorsement from an unusual source. In a policy address at the American Enterprise Institute, John W. Rowe, chairman and CEO of Exelon, operator of the largest fleet of nuclear power plants, urged lawmakers to “do nothing” and let the markets dictate and the nation rely on “a clean, competitive and inexpensive windfall,” natural gas.

Natural gas has gotten a ringing endorsement from an unusual source. In a policy address at the American Enterprise Institute, John W. Rowe, chairman and CEO of Exelon, operator of the largest fleet of nuclear power plants, urged lawmakers to “do nothing” and let the markets dictate and the nation rely on “a clean, competitive and inexpensive windfall,” natural gas.

La Nina conditions — an unusual cooling of ocean surface temperatures off the western coast of South America that is believed to have significant effects on North American weather patterns — continue to develop across the equatorial Pacific, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).