Utica Shale

With natural gas exploration and production continuing to ramp up in the Marcellus and Utica shales of the eastern United States, TransCanada Corp. has a new pipeline project on the table to capture more of those supplies for Canadian import to serve existing markets in Ontario and Quebec.

The Marcellus Shale has been great, and Pennsylvanians don’t mind too much the associated pipeline development, but tight coordination of multiple projects is necessary, and better communication with communities would be appreciated, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett told FERC last week in comments on the Williams Transco Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project.

EnLink Midstream is wasting no time in building out its onshore portfolio, announcing Monday plans to build a 45-mile, 8-inch diameter condensate pipeline and six natural gas compression and condensate facilities to serve producers in the Utica Shale.

Pennsylvania’s natural gas production broke another record, coming in just under 2 Tcf in the first half of this year. The total was 1.94 Tcf, about 520 MMcf higher than in the year-ago period, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reported on Monday.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Mid-Atlantic office, imploring it to shut down two Class II injection wells operated by a West Virginia-based company that NRDC alleges have not been properly regulated by the state.

Appalachian pure-play Eclipse Resources Corp. produced 42 MMcfe/d in the second quarter, a sixty-fold increase from the 679 Mcfe/d it reported last year at the same time.

The Utica Shale continues to make headlines, with its third milestone moment coming last week when the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) released data showing that more than 1,000 horizontal wells have been drilled in the formation.

EV Energy Partners LP (EVEP) faced more operational challenges last quarter, with delays in well completions in the Barnett Shale and compression constraints that hampered flows on its midstream system in Ohio.

Rex Energy Corp. has agreed to purchase 207,000 net acres from Royal Dutch Shell plc affiliate SWEPI LP for $120 million, in a move that it said will significantly bolster its liquids-rich core in western Pennsylvania.