Shale Daily

An upstart New Jersey-based company with backing from Israel Corp., Primus Green Energy Inc., is poised to market a gas-to-liquid (GTL) solution for flared associated gas in North Dakota and other parts of the globe seeking to harness the wasted offshoot of today’s crude oil boom.

With the brutally cold 2013-2014 winter firmly in the rearview mirror, the question that now looms is whether it will be possible to refill natural gas storage reservoirs in time for next winter, and at what price. Answering these questions would require an idea of how much gas should be in storage by the start of the heating season, according to NGI Markets analyst Nathan Harrison.

As its operational footprint in Ohio has continued to shift toward the southeast, following an intensifying pattern of other operators moving toward the Utica Shale’s core, Consol Energy Inc. last month closed its northeast Ohio field office in Columbiana County.

Geologists in North Carolina plan to collect rock samples from seven counties in the western part of the state this summer to test for oil and natural gas. Meanwhile, a bill that would open the Tar Heel State to shale development is headed to Gov. Pat McCrory’s desk for his signature.

Dominion has asked FERC to approve a pipeline expansion to Upstate New York and another to West Virginia that would rely on locally sourced natural gas for growing demand.

Gross withdrawals of natural gas in the Lower 48 during the month of March increased by 1.6% compared to the preceding month, thanks in part to good weather in the Appalachian and Uinta basins, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Two top political advisers to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo held meetings with the heads of two state agencies at the heart of the debate over whether to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) in the state, according to documents obtained through a freedom of information request.

Goodrich Petroleum Corp. has turned in additional encouraging well results from the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS). Analysts following the TMS progress of Goodrich and others said Monday they are encouraged but still more needs to be learned.

The vertical-to-horizontal rig switch in the Permian Basin is accelerating faster than expected, and the overall domestic rig count also is on pace to be higher than forecast this year, Raymond James & Associates Inc.’s analysts said Monday.