Utica Shale

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association (PIOGA) will study radioactive materials produced from shale development activities, with the results intended to complement a similar study being performed by state regulators, the groups said.

Williams executives believe the Bluegrass Pipeline, which would deliver natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Marcellus and Utica shales to Gulf Coast markets, to be a key to unlocking all of the value of the Appalachian Basin’s reserves, but exploration and production (E&P) companies still need to provide some details about their drilling plans for assurance beyond 2015, CEO Alan Armstrong said Thursday.

A Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) official said Wednesday a consent decree between the agency and a private company concerning pollution, possibly from oil and gas wastewater discharged from a treatment facility along the Allegheny River, is imminent.

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has proposed a policy that would enable it to give conditional approval for barges to transport wastewater from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in bulk, a move that could potentially open the nation’s waterways as transit options.

Northeastern natural gas markets have gotten a “strong signal” from the gas-on-gas competition in the Appalachian Basin this year, and there is now support for continued infrastructure development to take away more supplies, Williams CEO Alan Armstrong said Thursday.

Midstream companies are adding infrastructure and working to give producers options in the Marcellus and Utica shales, but some are concerned that construction isn’t keeping pace with production, a scenario that could lead to the bottom falling out on natural gas prices, something already seen.

Range Resources Corp. doesn’t really know how many wells it may drill from its million acre-plus holdings in the Appalachian Basin. Simple answer, “it’s a lot of wells” that will grow in number for at least 10 or 20 years, COO Ray Walker told analysts Wednesday.

Although the development of the Marcellus Shale promises to bring a bounty of natural gas to the marketplace, officials with local distribution companies (LDC) in the Northeast told attendees at Platts’ Appalachian Oil and Gas Conference in Pittsburgh on Monday that portfolio management was still a tricky business.

Producers, both large and small, face similar regulatory and commercial challenges to getting the infrastructure they need in the Appalachian Basin for egress, according to a panel of executives who spoke at Platts’ Appalachian Oil and Gas Conference in Pittsburgh on Monday.