Bakken Shale

FERC Thursday approved Tallgrass Interstate Gas Transmission LLC’s (previously Kinder Morgan Interstate Gas Transmission LLC) proposal to sell a 432-mile mainline segment to affiliate Tallgrass Pony Express for the purpose of converting it to transport crude oil from the Bakken and Denver-Julesburg/Niobrara shales.

Oklahoma City’s Continental Resources Inc. is preparing for a 26-32% increase in oil and natural gas production in 2014, CEO Harold Hamm said Tuesday.

A SaskEnergy subsidiary and Calgary-based Mistral Midstream Inc. have formed a joint venture (JV) to build a facility in southeast Saskatchewan to extract ethane and other hydrocarbons from natural gas from the Bakken formation being transported on the SaskEnergy system.

A small increase in natural gas flaring worldwide was detected in 2011, the most recent year for which statistics are compiled, and that increase concerns officials at a World Bank-led global partnership focused on the oilfield issue.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. is acquiring 161,000 net acres in the Williston Basin for nearly $1.52 billion in four separate transactions, which will grow its Williston position to 492,000 net acres with 43,000 boe/d of production and 215.6 million boe of proved reserves.

More than one year after creating a subcommittee to study hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and develop a consensus for best practices, ASTM International has proposed a new standard for data management and reporting that would cover oil and gas operations in shale plays.

Whiting Petroleum Corp. is building its presence in the Williston Basin by purchasing some acreage in North Dakota and Montana, the Denver-based operator said Tuesday.

While rail transport of crude oil is getting a lot of attention these days, railroads are playing a bigger part in the U.S. domestic energy expansion, as BNSF Railway Co.’s $4.3 billion capital budget for 2013 indicates.

The future of continued robust growth in railing domestic crude oil supplies has come into question following the Quebec oil tanker car derailment in July, but the transporters don’t see a slowing trend longer term.