Shale Daily

JBBR Pipeline LLC is holding an open season for a new 20-inch diameter crude oil pipeline, measuring approximately four miles in length, in Illinois.

EQT Corp. plans to do more with fewer wells heading into the end of the year and into 2015, outlining a strategy on Thursday during its third quarter conference call that relies on longer laterals rather than more wells to increase output going forward.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy), which soon will spin off its California assets into a new company, currently has more of a sales mindset, but if oil prices continue to decline it could quickly switch to a buying mode regarding U.S. domestic assets, particularly in the Permian Basin, CEO Stephen Chazen said Thursday on a 3Q2014 earnings conference call.

Any environmental impacts of the proposed Constitution Pipeline and Wright Interconnect projects could be reduced “to less than significant levels” with the implementation of 43 mitigation measures, according to a final environmental impact statement (FEIS) issued Friday by FERC staff.

The Fayetteville Shale delivered its highest quarterly production results ever for Southwestern Energy Co. in the third quarter, but double-digit growth from the expanding Marcellus Shale portfolio clearly grabbed the spotlight.

On average, North Dakota oil production, which surged past the 1 million b/d mark earlier this year, will continue to grow steadily at a rate of about 18,000 b/d each month through 2019, according to a study completed in September for the state legislature.

Despite admitting that 2015 could be one of the toughest years yet for oil and gas prices, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. management on Friday reaffirmed the company’s plans to grow annual production by 20-30%, with a drilling program that could eventually lean more heavily on the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has signed a bill into law requiring operators to report production on a monthly basis. The state legislature unanimously supported the bill (see Shale Daily,Oct. 21). The law will go into effect next year, with the first reports due by March 31 and after that within 45 days of the reporting period’s close. Pennsylvania operators were previously required to report production twice a year, or every six months. Corbett also signed a bill requiring exploration and production companies to provide a document to leaseholders detailing the expiration of a lease. The bill, which was sponsored by a Republican state representative, is aimed at clarifying uncertainties about when exactly a lease expires. Operators will now have to provide a document that surrenders interests to the land within 30 days of the lease’s termination.

The issue of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) came up during the only debate scheduled among the candidates running for governor in New York, in a race that two polls predict should be an easy win for the incumbent, Democrat Andrew Cuomo.