E&P

While construction projects and jobs in non-shale gas related industries declined sharply from 2008 to 2014, tradesman in five states within or near to the Marcellus Shale worked more hours and benefited heavily from investments in the formation’s development, according to a new study.

More than a year after becoming the only local jurisdiction in New Mexico to ban all oil and natural gas activity, Mora County’s three-member elected commission voted last Tuesday against repealing the ban it passed in April 2013. However, an industry representative predicts that the ban will be repealed next year.

Whether domestic exploration and production companies will slow 2015 capital expenditures if cash flows slow on low commodity prices is too early to say, but any concerns by operators likely will impact spending growth rates, Schlumberger Ltd. CEO Paal Kibsgaard said Friday.

The oil and natural gas industry, and other stakeholders, should collaborate to quantify potential risks of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), according to DNV GL, a global maritime and oil/gas safety consulting and accreditation organization.

Antero Resources Corp. reported surging natural gas production once again during the third quarter, with volumes reaching 1.08 Bcfe/d, up 21% from the second quarter and almost double from year-ago volumes (see Shale Daily, Aug. 8; Nov. 8, 2013).

Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Thursday agreed to sell a wide swath of its dry natural gas-heavy assets in southern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia to Southwestern Energy Co. for $5.375 billion, a sale that has been anticipated for months.

A legislative panel in Illinois has delayed a vote on revised rules governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) until its next meeting in November, following state and national elections.

No matter how volatile the global political scenario becomes for oil and gas markets, North America will remain in a more solid position because the unconventionals have provided operators with predictability that can’t be found anywhere else in the world, Baker Hughes Inc.’s CEO said Thursday.

Bakken sweet crude oil on Wednesday was fetching $66.25/bbl, prompting North Dakota’s chief oil/natural gas regulator to spend most of his time during a monthly production webinar lamenting the possibility of future slowed production in the state’s otherwise uninterrupted oil boom.