Bakken Shale

Onshore powerhouse EOG Resources Inc. expects to ramp up 2014 activity and capital spending in the Eagle Ford and Bakken shales, assuming oil and natural gas prices are similar to current New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) prices, outgoing Executive Chairman Mark Papa said last week.

Despite problems with their first well targeting the Utica Shale, executives with Magnum Hunter Corp. said the company plans to speed up leasing activity and deploy a second drilling rig in the play, based on encouraging results by their competitors.

Natural gas infrastructure in the Bakken Shale is being added at the fastest rate ever, but associated gas flaring at the wellhead stubbornly remains due to a complex set of challenges, according to a report released Wednesday by the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) Thursday issued a safety order to the Tesoro High Plains Pipeline in response to a recent rupture that resulted in a spill of Bakken crude oil in North Dakota.

The Williston Basin centered in North Dakota and spreading into parts of adjacent states and Canada carries huge long-term potential, and operators are finding that there is no single formula for unlocking its treasure of crude oil and natural gas, according to senior executives at Denver-based Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp.

ConocoPhillips executives said most of the company’s production growth during 3Q2013 came from shale plays in the Lower 48 — especially the Eagle Ford and the Bakken — and predicted “significant growth and very high margin growth” from the Eagle Ford for several more years.

With crude oil production and natural gas flaring on a record-setting pace in the Bakken Shale, North Dakota and industry officials welcomed a new gas pipeline link, but pipelines are only part of the problem.

Although it happened about a month ago and the situation has been under control, a leak of 20,600 bbl of crude oil in a remote wheat field is still being felt in North Dakota state offices, particularly in the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). It has prompted cries for the public’s need to know.

Despite an agreement to sell some of its non-core liquids assets, Enerplus Corp. increased its 2013 estimates for annual average and exit production, thanks to a “strong performance” from its core assets in the Bakken and Marcellus shales.