Shale Daily

Royal Dutch Shell plc has been in negotiations with several landowners who own property around a site in western Pennsylvania that the company is considering for a “world class” ethane cracker, a sign that Shell could be moving forward with the project.

EXCO Resources, Inc.said Douglas H. Miller has resigned as both CEO and from the company’s board of directors, which he had also chaired. The board appointed Jeffrey D. Benjamin, a long-time investor and an independent board member, as non-executive board chairman. Benjamin has served on the board since October 2005 and previously served from 1998 to 2003. The board has started a search for the company’s next CEO.

A small conventional oil and gas company in Ohio recently settled a lawsuit with two individuals opposed to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) who allegedly referred to a road deicer and dust suppressant it manufactures as frack waste or frack water. The product, called AquaSalina, is processed from brine water produced during oil and gas drilling. The Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court ruled against Tish O’Dell and Michelle Aini, members of a group opposed to oil and gas drilling, and issued an injunction preventing them from further defaming Duck Creek Energy, of Brecksville, Ohio. Duck Creek filed the lawsuit in 2012. It was settled in September and the company announced the outcome earlier this month.

U.S. Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) blasted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, accusing the governor of stalling on a decision to possibly permit high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) in the state.

With promotions in recent months and years that include executives drinking some cleaned up fluids used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Halliburton Corp.’s top leaders have attempted to demonstrate its and the industry’s ability to take lemons and make lemonade. In this case, the “lemonade” is a stale-favored drink that is nontoxic, but not meant to replace normal beverages of choice.

In response to “multiple inquiries,” Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC has launched a package of proposals to transport as much as 400,000 Dth/d of natural gas from the Utica Shale to the Texas Gulf Coast beginning as soon as April 1.

The decision by EQT Corp. to award Valerus Compression Services LLC a contract to build the components for two compression stations in southwestern Pennsylvania could attract interest by other operators, a Valerus executive said Wednesday.

North Dakota’s swelling revenues from robust shale-driven production should get richer based on an announcement Tuesday by Tulsa-based Oneok Partners LP to invest $650-780 million by 2016 for new natural gas infrastructure, spending that could relieve a chronic flared gas problem.

Pennsylvania’s Environmental Hearing Board on Wednesday ruled that it does not have “original jurisdiction” to approve orders for well spacing and drilling units — or requests for forced pooling — as they’re referred to in the state.