Vast

Elected officials from a wealthy Pittsburgh suburb are urging their constituents to vote against a controversial referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot that would ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) over fears that its passage would put the suburb in the crosshairs for lawsuits and undermine its drilling ordinance.

A vast majority of natural gas cash averages moved higher on Tuesday for Wednesday delivery despite moderating temperatures, a relatively quiet tropical weather picture and a lack of support from the screen’s prior-day action. Even western points, which widely recorded drops on Monday for Tuesday delivery, got in on the upticks on Tuesday.

The Bakken play in North Dakota and parts of Montana holds a potential 24 billion boe in oil, liquids and natural gas, according to the CEO of one of the Bakken’s pioneering independent exploration and production (E&P) companies.

The shale natural gas industry is “under siege” by some critics and without the public’s support, access to the massive reserves also could be diminished, an industry executive said Wednesday.

In the event of a shutdown of the federal government at midnight EDT Friday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said the “vast bulk of the agency’s operations will cease.” It said it will have only 25 staff members overseeing the markets, which will allow the stock markets, commodities and futures exchanges to continue to operate.

A bill in a Texas House committee if passed would repeal a natural gas drilling tax break that benefits the vast majority of wells in the state’s shale gas plays. The bill’s sponsor says the incentive has outlived its usefulness, but an industry advocate claims its repeal would be a gas production- and job-killer.

More than two years after a spectacularly expensive takeover called attention to Alberta’s vast Duvernay geological formation, drilling is beginning — and the deep shale target is turning out to be expensive to hit.

More than two years after a spectacularly expensive takeover called attention to Alberta’s vast Duvernay geological formation, drilling is beginning — and the deep shale target is turning out to be expensive to hit.

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.