Shale Daily

Two days after voters in Illinois elected a new governor, a panel of state lawmakers has unanimously approved a series of regulations governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state.

More than two years after it signed an option to buy a 300-acre plot of land in western Pennsylvania for its proposed multi-billion dollar ethane cracker, Royal Dutch Shell plc affiliate Shell Chemical LP is moving forward with its purchase and will soon begin preliminary site development.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP — the largest gas processor and fractionator in the Northeast — saw record volumes in Appalachia during the third quarter as the leading Marcellus Shale and up-and-coming Utica Shale kept on giving. There’s more to come, CEO Frank Semple told analysts who follow the company.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. said Friday it plans to take its Appalachian midstream subsidiary, Eureka Hunter, public sometime early next year, as throughput on the system continues to rise and the company plans to bring a backlog of wells online in the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. is pursuing the sale of its 50.1% share of the Eagle Ford Shale Midstream business (EFS Midstream) that it owns and operates with Reliance Holding USA Inc. (49.9%). “The sale of EFS Midstream would allow us to strategically redeploy capital to our core, oil-rich Spraberry/Wolfcamp assets in the Permian Basin of West Texas…” said Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield. “We currently have no plans to divest our Eagle Ford Shale upstream assets.” The sale of EFS Midstream, he said, is not expected to impact the company’s ability to export processed Eagle Ford condensate (see Shale Daily,June 25). The joint venture was formed in 2010 and services are provided by operator Pioneer (46%), Reliance (45%) and Newpek LLC (9%), and for various third parties. The system consists of 10 central gathering plants and 460 miles of pipelines. Pioneer’s cash flow from EFS Midstream is forecasted to be more than $100 million in 2015. A data room is to be opened in December.

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. CEO David Emery on Tuesday said the Mancos Shale drilling program in the Piceance and San Juan basins is behind schedule, but the company plans to make up ground next year with 12 wells in production. Three wells should ramp up by the end of this year, he said.

While it plans to exit the oil/natural gas exploration/production (E&P) sector, MDU Resources Group Inc. is still focused on ongoing drilling programs and will begin hydraulically fracturing (fracking) wells in the Paradox Basin, executives said.

Gulfport Energy Corp. offered few details about next year’s budget and operational plans during a third quarter earnings call, telling financial analysts it needs more time to gauge where commodity markets are heading.

Three field laboratories and six research projects across the United States will be hard at work over the next few years to develop technology that minimizes environmental impacts of unconventional oil and gas (UOG) resource development, while maximizing economic and national security benefits.