Shale Daily

Production of natural gas and oil from the seven most prolific U.S. shale and tight oil regions will continue to increase through the end of the year, reaching 44.12 Bcf/d and 5.26 b/d in December, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

For the first time since entering the play, Hess Corp. has issued production guidance for its Utica Shale assets in Ohio, estimating that its wells there will be producing 40,000 boe/d by 2020.

The Los Angeles City Council early this year called for a draft moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), but the city planning department is proposing another way to regulate drilling practices — land-use and zoning regulations.

Gastar Exploration Inc. expects to cut its capital budget and scale back the number of wells it plans to drill next year, electing to take a more cautious approach as its Appalachian natural gas production continues to be impacted by declining basis differentials and crude oil prices remain weak.

September set another record for upstream oil and gas activity in the Lone Star State, but weakened oil prices indicate that a slowdown could be coming — how significant remains to be seen, said a Texas economist specializing in energy patch data.

Even if prevailing prices fall significantly, it will be as difficult to slow the U.S. oil spigot as it has been for unconventional natural gas, which holds enormous implications for global energy markets, Citi analysts said in a new report.

A draft environmental impact study (DEIS) is in sight in Washington state on a joint venture (JV) involving units of Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies for a crude oil rail/marine terminal at the Port of Vancouver which is expected to handle Bakken crude.

While they celebrated into the night about the defeat of an anti-oil/natural gas measure in Santa Barbara County after last week’s elections (see Daily GPI, Nov. 5), royalty owners in California sobered up the next day to discover that similar opposing measures passed handily in two other counties, albeit ones with little or no active drilling.

The third quarter was a good one for Quicksilver Resources Inc., thanks to a combination of higher earnings, reduced drilling costs and strong results from the first two wells it drilled in West Texas with its joint venture (JV) partner, Italy’s Eni.