Eagle Ford Shale

The Denver-Julesburg (DJ) and Permian basins, and the Utica Shale, should lead all onshore plays for horizontal fracturing (fracking) this year as drilling and completion (D&C) activity continues to escalate, according to PacWest Consulting Partners LLC.

Growing crude and condensate production from the Eagle Ford Shale was too good for Buckeye Partners LP to ignore. The partnership is buying into Gulf Coast midstream assets that serve the play and offer growth opportunities with expansion currently in progress.

A unit of Royal Dutch Shell plc has drilled two natural gas wells into the Utica Shale in Pennsylvania near the New York border, 100 miles-plus from most of the current activity, news that suggests a much bigger potential for the far-reaching formation.

Preliminary data from the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) show that both crude oil and natural gas production in the Lone Star State climbed during June.

Penn Virginia Corp. (PVA) said it expects delays in its drilling program in 2H2014, and it expects those delays to have a slight impact on production, expected earnings and capital expenditures (capex) for the remainder of the year.

Denver-based SM Energy Co. raised its production guidance for 2014 in spite of an anticipated hiccup in the company’s Eagle Ford Shale operations during the third quarter. The company also will be spending more than planned earlier.

The use of natural gas for power generation in the Lower 48 is expected to increase to 1.6 billion megawatt hours (MWh) by 2040, a 1.3% average annual increase, in part due to development of several shale plays, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Forest Oil Corp. told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) it will need more time to file its quarterly Form 10-Q after an internal audit found problems with the company’s accounting software system and related compensating controls, and “material weakness” in its internal control over financial reporting.

EV Energy Partners LP (EVEP) faced more operational challenges last quarter, with delays in well completions in the Barnett Shale and compression constraints that hampered flows on its midstream system in Ohio.