Shale Daily

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Monday that the Marcellus Shale region is expected to provide 18% of the country’s natural gas production in December as more takeaway capacity has come online and operators continue to maximize drilling efficiencies in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Bluegrass Pipeline LLC, a joint venture of Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP, extended its binding open season through Jan. 17 to give prospective shippers more time to evaluate the pipeline project and its market outlet options, Bluegrass said. The project would provide natural gas liquids (NGL) transportation capacity from the Marcellus and Utica shales to the petrochemical and export complex on the U.S. Gulf Coast (see Shale Daily,March 7). The open season began Oct. 29. Bluegrass is in a horse race with a competing Marcellus-Gulf Coast NGL pipeline project proposed by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and MarkWest Utica EMG LLC (see Shale Daily,Oct. 17). For documents or information, contact Joe Edgeller with Williams at (918) 573-9917, joe.edgeller@williams.com; or Beth Medlin with Boardwalk at (713) 479-8118, beth.medlin@bwpmlp.com.

Rex Energy Corp. on Friday reported favorable results for five wells in the Warrior South prospect, an area of Ohio in the Utica Shale, and provided an update on four wells it placed into sales in Western Pennsylvania.

Ohio has reached a milestone of sorts, surpassing its 1,000th drilling permit last month in what sources say represents the oil and gas industry’s early satisfaction with the Utica Shale and highlights the continued push to develop the play.

Hundreds of natural gas and oil wells in prime producing areas of the U.S. onshore remained shuttered Friday afternoon after Winter Storm Cleon delivered snow and ice from the Bakken Shale into the Permian Basin and across the Midcontinent. Its terrible twin Dion, which already had blasted the Pacific Coast on Friday, was in quick pursuit, with forecasters predicting a Northeast hit by Saturday.

A group of Republicans in the Ohio House of Representatives have once again thrust the state’s oil and gas severance tax onto center stage by proposing a modest increase in the rate operators currently pay for production in the Utica Shale.

A Colorado congressman Thursday called on the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) to immediately withdraw its lawsuits challenging bans on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the cities of Fort Collins and Lafayette.

ConocoPhillips, the largest U.S. exploration and production (E&P) operator, plans to spend $16.7 billion for its operations in 2014, with more than half of the investments (55%) allocated to North America, and in particular, the Eagle Ford and Bakken shales, and the Permian Basin.

Responding to shipper interest in a natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline servicing the Marcellus and Utica shales, Sunoco Logistics Partners LP launched a binding open season for its Mariner East 2 project on Wednesday.