E&P

Despite oil and gas companies taking divergent strategies in Ohio’s portion of the Utica Shale — and the elusiveness of a “sweet spot” for producers — the play offers ample opportunities for production and investment, according to a report released Wednesday by the law firm Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP.

In what is a mixed bag for the oil and railroad industries, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) on Wednesday unveiled proposed rules to improve the transport of crude oil via rail, proposing enhanced tank car design specifications, fuel classification and operational requirements for handling crude.

After careful analysis and increasingly promising wells near its asset base, EQT Corp. on Thursday became the second company this year to announce that it will spud its first Utica Shale well in southwest Pennsylvania in the coming months.

The upstream oil and gas economy in Texas has been expanding for the past four and a half years and shows no signs of slowing thanks in part — but not entirely — to global geopolitical tensions, according to a barometer of industry activity called the Texas Petro Index (TPI).

Firefighters were allowing a massive fire at the Red River Oilfield Service Co.’s facilities in the Williston Basin to burn late Tuesday as North Dakota state health officials monitored the situation.

Operations at oil and natural gas wells in Pennsylvania harmed water supplies more than 200 times between December 2007 and May of this year, according to data compiled by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has once again rescheduled two public hearings for September regarding Hilcorp Energy Co.’s request for a forced pooling order in Western Pennsylvania, in which nearby property owners and drillers will be allowed to provide testimony.

Rex Energy Corp. said Monday that its estimated proved reserves exceeded 1 Tcfe, thanks in large part to its core operating areas in eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, where the company has reported increasing success in the last year or so (see Shale Daily, Jan. 16).

Life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from natural gas-fueled power plants are the same whether they are fueled with gas from shale or conventional basins, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.