Shale Daily

Calfrac Well Services Ltd.has agreed to acquire all of the operating assets ofMission Well Services LLC, a privately-held hydraulic fracturing and coiled tubing services provider focused on the Eagle Ford Shale, for $147 million. Calfrac will acquire 157,500 hp of conventional pumping equipment, along with high-rate blenders, related sand-handling and auxiliary equipment, three deep-capacity coiled tubing units with related fluid and nitrogen pumping units and a modern district facility in San Antonio. Calfrac will gain a foothold in the Texas market with the addition of locations in Houston, San Antonio and Fairfield. The company is assuming certain commitments with key suppliers of Mission and will be offering employment to a significant portion of Mission’s employees. Calfrac intends to transfer a portion of the assets to other active operating areas in the United States. With the acquired assets, Calfrac will have more than 1.18 million hp of conventional pumping capacity.

In a memo sent to Republicans lawmakers Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said the House will take up a bill, theProtecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act, in the coming weeks that would restrict the Obama administration’s ability to impose duplicative regulations on fracking on federal and tribal lands.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has created a natural gas boom in shale plays in the United States that has lowered prices, creating billions of dollars of retail savings for U.S. energy consumers, particularly among low-income households where energy amounts to a larger portion of monthly budgets, according to an analysis by Colorado-based Mercator Energy.

The only possible land mine for continued robust growth in U.S. natural gas supplies in the next five years would be an outright ban or oppressive national regulation of the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in America’s revitalized oil/gas fields, according to a panel of bullish experts assembled on the opening day of the LDC Gas Forum Mid-Continent in Chicago Monday.

Sanchez Energy Corp. is buying up more of the Eagle Ford Shale, acquiring 11 million boe of proved reserves and 2,000 boe/d of production on 3,600 contiguous net acres in McMullen County, TX.

Halcon Resources Corp. will begin seismic testing to find Utica Shale oil and gas deposits in six townships of Mahoning County, OH, after local officials there approved a one-year road use maintenance agreement with the company.

EV Energy Partners LP (EVEP) and partnerships managed by EnerVest Ltd. have agreed to acquire Barnett Shale natural gas properties from Carrizo Oil and Gas Inc.

The drilling rights to an estimated 13,000 acres in New York’s Southern Tier will be released and litigation dropped as part of a major settlement reached Monday by Chesapeake Energy Corp. and about 200 landowners.

Responding in part to the derailment and explosion of a crude-laden tanker in Quebec in July, the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has proposed a rule aimed at improving the safety of the rail transportation of hazardous materials by tanker cars, as well as the rail transportation of shale oil.