Shale Daily

Dominion Resources Inc. announced Monday that it plans to close and decommission a nuclear power plant in Wisconsin next year, a decision the company said was made in part due to continuing low natural gas prices.

Results from recent U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) water quality testing in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitoring wells in Pavillion, WY, “raise serious questions about the adequacy of EPA practices in drilling monitoring wells and testing water samples,” said Erik Milito, American Petroleum Institute (API) upstream director.

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to fine an energy company for a 2010 fire could be the first time federal and state regulators have levied fines for the same incident in the Marcellus Shale.

Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission voted to partially adopt federal clean air rules that target hydraulic fracturing (fracking) emissions and hold public meetings next year to consider full implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules.

Baker Hughes Inc., the industry’s third-largest oilfield services provider, said Friday the slump in U.S. natural gas activity weighed heavily on its latest quarterly profits. However, the No. 1 oilfield services provider, Schlumberger Ltd., managed to avoid the carnage in North America’s onshore by accelerating activity overseas.

Boulder County, CO, officials may need to keep in place longer than expected a moratorium on the processing of development plans for oil and gas permits. County Planning Commission members said Wednesday they need more time to complete new regulations meant to address potential public health and environmental impacts of oil and gas exploration in unincorporated areas of the county, according to news reports. In February Boulder County commissioners passed a resolution that placed a moratorium on accepting applications until Feb. 4, 2013. The Planning Commission asked the Board of County Commissioners to extend the moratorium by three to six months. Government officials from around Colorado have challenged the state’s authority to regulate energy operations (see Shale Daily, Sept. 24; Aug. 17). The state maintains exclusive jurisdiction in this area under the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

If you’re looking for the newest hotspot for onshore oil and gas development anywhere in the United States, from a target within the emerging Mississippian Lime of Oklahoma and Kansas to a new location in the more established Marcellus Shale of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, NGI’s Shale Daily has a new resource to help identify drilling trends.

The Pennsylvania State Senate unanimously passed a bill last Monday absolving mine operators and landowners from liability for any injury or damage caused by the use of acid mine drainage (AMD) in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has filed an application at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission seeking to boost the compression capacity along its 300 Line to meet the growing demand for interstate natural gas transportation service in the northeastern United States and Canada.