Shale Daily

Last year, Colorado’s oil and natural gas industry injected $29.6 billion into the state’s economy, supporting 110,000 mostly high-paying jobs, according to a study released Monday by a research unit at the Leeds Business School, University of Colorado (UC), Boulder.

Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd. said the Eagle Ford Shale has become the largest producing field in its petroleum and potash division for the year ending June 30, but the company plans to scale back its rig count and spend less on capital expenditures (capex) in the United States in 2014.

Aubrey McClendon hasn’t taken long to gallop back in the U.S. onshore unconventional drilling business, if analysts are to be believed.

Anti-fracking activists in the United Kingdom last week scored something of a win, forcing Staffordshire, England-based Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. to scale back conventional drilling operations in West Sussex on the advice of police worried about “direct action” by protesters who began a three-day demonstration last Sunday.

Prometheus Energy Group Inc. announced that it had signed a multi-year agreement to supply Antero Resources with enough liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power “a significant portion” of Antero’s natural gas-fueled drilling rigs in the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Mexico’s federal government-dominated energy sector continues to be the focus of reform talk by the country’s presidential administration, with disclosures by the new CEO at Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) that he will form a new company within the state-operated oil and natural gas giant specifically to go after shale and deep water Gulf of Mexico (GOM) supplies outside of Mexico.

A biannual production report posted by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) shows the state’s stable of unconventional gas wells produced a record 1.42 Tcf during the first six months of 2013.

Exploration and production (E&P) companies remain enthusiastic about the U.S. onshore, in particular the Permian Basin, Niobrara formation, Utica Shale and the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS), based on observations at the recent EnerCom Consulting oil and natural gas conference, said two analyst teams who were there. However, Marcellus Shale pricing appears to be a “real concern for the buyside.”

After meeting with regional officials from the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Denver on Wednesday, North Dakota’s chief regulator for oil and natural gas production, Lynn Helms, said he is convinced that there will be BLM rules covering hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on federal lands (seeShale Daily,May 17).