Shale Daily

Rick Smead, a director in Navigant Consulting Inc.’s Energy Practice, co-authored the firm’s 2008 North American Natural Gas Supply Assessment, which was considered a breakthrough in recognizing the potential of unconventional natural gas supplies. However, many of the two-year-old supply assumptions already need to be updated because of remarkable advancements in technology, he said Wednesday.

With 2010 drawing to a close, Petrohawk Energy Corp. is working to put a bow on its Haynesville Shale leasehold so it can focus more attention on the natural gas liquids- (NGL) and condensate-rich Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, company executives told financial analysts Tuesday.

In a year’s time, production from shale plays has gone from 6% of Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc.’s North American gas production to 36%, the company said Tuesday.

Victory for Republican candidate Tom Corbett in the race for governor of Pennsylvania and a Republican-led legislature may be the death knell for a natural gas severance tax in the state — or not.

State Review of Oil & Natural Gas Environmental Regulations Inc. (STRONGER), a nonprofit organization whose board is composed of state, industry and public interest representatives, will be conducting a review of the hydraulic fracturing portions of the oil and gas regulatory program of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources Office of Conservation against guidelines developed by STRONGER. A report containing review team findings will be made available to interested parties. The organization recently conducted a similar review in Pennsylvania (see Daily GPI, Sept. 24).

A five-week air quality study found no air contaminant emission levels indicating problems for residents living near Marcellus Shale natural gas operations in southwestern Pennsylvania’s Greene and Washington counties, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said Monday.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has 100 wells, “maybe a few more,” in the Marcellus Shale alone that are not completed or tied in as they await infrastructure, a company executive said Tuesday.

Oil and natural gas producers and environmental groups routinely have been at odds with each other over the practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), but they are now working together to draft a framework for regulation.

Untapped unconventional gas plays still exist in pockets across North America, but domestic producers are branching out to test prospects in Europe, the Asian Pacific area, Africa and elsewhere to stake their claims in the next big shale plays.