North American natural gas giant Encana Corp. saw its gas production drop 12% from a year ago, as well as its profits, as it turned off the spigot in its wide ranging gas-rich plays. A one-time hedging loss of $266 million and a nonoperating foreign exchange loss of $101 million reversed profits from a year earlier.
Well
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Industry Briefs
A news media tour was held Saturday at the Mayflower, AR, oil spill area under the joint command of local, state and federal officials, as well as ExxonMobil representatives. The event was held to provide an update of the spill, which occurred March 29 when a portion of the ExxonMobil Pegasus Pipeline ruptured. Since then, the portion of the 850-mile oil pipeline that failed has been removed for analysis at an independent laboratory and a new section of pipeline installed, all under state and federal oversight. In ExxonMobil’s most recent daily report the company indicated that cleanup was coming to an end and remediation of the area should begin soon. Monitoring by the company and various agencies has indicated that there has been no contamination of water or air from the spilling of what is estimated to be 5,000 bbl of oil. Besides U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representatives, there have been representatives from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office and local government on the scene since the cleanup began. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel launched an investigation several days after the incident (see Shale Daily, April 3).
Ohio Surpasses 600 Permits Issued in Utica Shale
Regulators with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) passed a milestone in the Utica Shale last week, after having cumulatively issued more than 600 permits for horizontal wells targeting oil and natural gas.
LNG Feed Gas: Something Old, New and Unconventional
Exploring for or exploiting already discovered conventional resources, as well as developing additional unconventional resources, are options for supplying the global demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) which will nearly double by 2025, according to Wood Mackenzie.
Atlas Pipeline Ups Ownership in Eagle Ford Midstream
Atlas Pipeline Partners LP stepped deeper into the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas on Tuesday with a $1 billion cash agreement to buy privately held Teak Midstream LLC, a natural gas gathering and processing operator.
Northeast Leads Broad Advance; Futures Post New 20-Month High
Cash prices averaged about a nickel higher Thursday as cooler weather and higher prompt power prices kept the market well bid. Northeast points led the march higher with double-digit gains, but the move higher was broad and pervasive.
Industry Brief
Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. is in talks with three parties for the potential sale of Eagle Ford Shale assets as part of plans this year to sell $400-500 million of assets. An announcement is expected soon, according to the company. During a recent conference call, CEO Gary Evans said all three Eagle Ford bidders have made offers in the same price range. Two are offering all cash and one is offering cash and equity, he said. “So from our perspective, it doesn’t really matter who ends up with it. But we do feel like we will have an announcement on that in short order,” he said.The company also is considering selling assets in the Pearsall Shale as well, and assets in the Williston Basin and potentially in Kentucky, Evans said.
Devon Claims EPA Misused Natural Gas Emissions Data
Devon Energy Corp. is pulling out of a voluntary natural gas well emissions data gathering program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claiming the data has been “irresponsibly and inaccurately used to justify costly regulations” for unconventional drilling.
Devon Quits EPA Program Charging Misuse of Emissions Data
Devon Energy Corp. is pulling out of a voluntary natural gas well emissions data gathering program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) saying the data has been “irresponsibly and inaccurately used to justify costly regulations” for unconventional drilling.
People
Tony Hayward, who resigned as BP plc Group CEO following the turbulence that followed the the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico’s deepwater, has taken over as chairman of UK-based CompactGTL, which has pioneered a modular gas-to-liquids (GTL) system for flared natural gas. Hayward has been running Genel Energy plc, an Anglo-Turkish explorer. He also participated in Vallares plc, an energy fund vehicle backed by a group of investors. Royal Dutch Shell plc is the dominant leader in giant global GTL technology; CompactGTL is on the other end of the spectrum. The smaller plants are designed to harness flared gas from oilfields.