Shale Daily

Underscoring what a Canadian research firm said earlier in the month about North American shale and Mexico’s growing gas demand, Sempra Energy’s top gas executive told NGI’s Shale Daily that a strong economy and growing natural gas demand make south of the border an attractive future market for ramped up shale gas production.

The Riverstone/Carlyle Global Energy and Power Funds Monday announced completion of the acquisition of USA Compression Holdings LP, the parent company of USA Compression Partners LLC, a natural gas compression services company headquartered in Austin and Dallas, TX. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The legislature of Tompkins County — which is in west-central New York in the midst of the state’s Marcellus Shale area — has approved a resolution prohibiting the leasing of county-owned land for natural gas drilling that involves hydraulic fracturing (fracking) well stimulation.

The debate over hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is sparking concerns about drinking water safety in the Marcellus Shale area and nationwide, according to the results of a trio of surveys released by the nonprofit Civil Society Institute (CSI).

In two deals announced Monday Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. is growing its foothold in the Appalachian Basin in what CEO Gary C. Evans called “a long-dated call option in natural gas.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. subsidiary Triad Hunter LLC is acquiring oil and gas properties and leasehold mineral interests in Wetzel and Lewis counties, WV, in the Marcellus Shale from Oklahoma City-based PostRock Energy Corp.

A lack of capacity to carry Marcellus Shale gas to New York City (NYC) along the eastern Pennsylvania border remains unresolved and will lead to a glut of supply in 2011, said Societe Generale energy analysts.

Petrohawk Energy Corp. has sold its natural gas assets in the Fayetteville Shale to XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corp., for $575 million, the company said. The deal puts ExxonMobil at No. 2 in the Fayetteville leaseholder pack.

The first well drilled by Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. into the northwestern West Virginia portion of the Marcellus Shale tested at an initial production (IP) rate of 7.0 MMcfe/d and was producing as of Dec. 22 into the recently completed Eureka Hunter Pipeline system, the company said.