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Monday
08Feb2010

Oil holds steady around $71

DateMonday, February 8, 2010 at 11:53AM
Metals including copper and gold also rose, although European shares turned negative after an earlier rally as banking stocks were dragged down by worries over euro zone sovereign debt problems.

US crude for March was up 38 cents at $71.57 a barrel by 1139 GMT. The contract fell as low as $69.50 on Friday, the lowest since 15 December. Brent crude rose 36 cents to $69.95.

"We dipped below $70 on Friday, which is the bottom of the recent trading range, and some used that as a buying opportunity," said analyst at Commerzbank, Carsten Fritsch, to Reuters, referring to US crude.

"Given weak fundamentals and doubts about economic recovery, it's only a matter of time before prices start heading lower again."

A cold snap in the US mid-Atlantic region, an area heavily dependent on home heating oil and natural gas supplies, and escalating tensions between Iran and western nations also lent support to prices.

The US dollar was weaker against a basket of currencies. Dollar weakness makes crude and other dollar-priced commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies, and tends to support oil prices.

Major commodity markets are testing 200-day moving averages after sharp sell-offs in the past three weeks, but that important support level appears to have held for US crude, as well as copper and gold.

For the rest of the story visit, Oil holds steady around $71 - Upstream Online
AuthorBill Sinclair | CommentPost a Comment |
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Thursday
04Feb2010

Not All Eagle Ford Shale Is Created Equal 

DateThursday, February 4, 2010 at 10:24AM

Many investors tend to think that all shale plays are the same, but there are vast differences between them. There are also major differences sometimes within the same shale play, and the Eagle Ford Shale is a perfect example of this variation.

The Eagle Ford Shale is located in South Texas, runs under many different counties and is centered on the Edwards Shelf trend, a 250-mile long Cretaceous age formation. The Eagle Ford Shale lies under the Austin Chalk, and above the Buda formation at depths ranging from 4,000-14,000 feet, depending on the location.

The wells drilled to the Eagle Ford Shale vary in content, from dry gas wells to those with high amounts of natural gas liquids and condensate, to wells that produce mostly oil.

There are important differences in the revenue realized from wells in different areas.  Pioneer Natural Resources provides an example of this with one of its recent completions into the Eagle Ford Shale.

For the rest of the story visit, Not All Eagle Ford Shale Is Created Equal

AuthorMaggie Burke | CommentPost a Comment |
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Thursday
04Feb2010

Anadarko staying with domestic shale gas for now

DateThursday, February 4, 2010 at 10:17AM

Even as competitors scout shale gas acreage in places as distant as South Africa, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is sticking to the United States, citing barriers to entering international markets.

While opportunities exist, Anadarko is not pursuing shale gas acreage in other countries, Bob Daniels, Anadarko’s exploration chief, told investors on the company’s earnings conference call on Tuesday.

“The real difficulty right now is the fiscal terms and the cost structure in these other, more remote locations,” Daniels said. “You have to have a market to sell the gas into, and you have to have infrastructure.”

Drilling for natural gas trapped in rock like shale was pioneered in the United States. Technology like hydraulic fracturing, where rocks are cracked open to release gas, allows companies to tap vast supplies of the cleaner-burning fuel.

Encouraged by North American results, companies including Exxon Mobil Corp, Chesapeake Energy Corp  and its partner Statoil ASA are looking around the world for other unconventional gas plays.

Anadarko is looking for natural gas in U.S. formations including the Marcellus Shale in Appalachia and the Eagle Ford Shale in south Texas.

For the rest of the story visit, Anadarko staying with domestic shale gas for now

AuthorMaggie Burke | CommentPost a Comment |
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Thursday
04Feb2010

Shell, Devon May Buy U.S. Shale Gas, Range Resources CEO Says

DateThursday, February 4, 2010 at 10:15AM

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Devon Energy Corp. may join Exxon Mobil Corp. as buyers of U.S. shale- gas producers or projects, the chief executive officer of gas developer Range Resources Corp. said.

Range Resources CEO John Pinkerton said in an interview yesterday his company may be a partner or target for oil companies, like Apache Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp., seeking to expand shale holdings in North America.

Exxon said last month it would buy XTO Energy Inc., a Fort Worth, Texas-based gas producer, for about $37 billion in stock and debt. Petroleum companies are “clearly sniffing around,” said Pinkerton, who declined to identify companies that have approached him.

Oil companies, previously focused overseas, are now “seeing that natural gas is half the carbon footprint of coal, it’s a third cleaner than oil, and now you’ve got these gigantic shale plays in the U.S.,” said Pinkerton.

Natural gas produces less carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas blamed for accelerating global warming, than crude oil or coal, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Shale gas is produced from rock formations using water, sand and chemicals.

Range Resources, based in Fort Worth, Texas, holds 1.4 million acres of leases for the Marcellus Shale, a formation that may hold 20 years’ worth of U.S. gas supplies. Improvements in shale-gas extraction technologies have helped U.S. gas reserves reach a record 1,836 trillion cubic feet, according to the Potential Gas Committee.

For the rest of the story visit, Shell, Devon May Buy U.S. Shale Gas, Range Resources CEO Says

AuthorMaggie Burke | CommentPost a Comment |
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Thursday
04Feb2010

More Inspectors, Safer Gas Well Rules in Pa. Plans

DateThursday, February 4, 2010 at 10:13AM

Pennsylvania is taking new steps to ensure public safety amid a rush to drill into what geologists believe could become the nation’s largest natural gas field, Gov. Ed Rendell said Thursday.

The state plans to hire more inspectors to monitor a growing number of well sites and is writing tougher rules to prevent gas from leaking into nearby homes and water wells, Rendell said.

He called them “decisive, progressive protections for the people of Pennsylvania.”

Among other things, 68 new well inspectors would be hired to join the more than 100 already on staff, while the proposed new rules would lower the maximum well pressures, raise standards for well cement and pipes, and require drilling companies to restore water supplies they pollute.

The rules were available on the Web site of the Department of Environmental Protection, which is accepting public comments on them for 30 days before it plans to submit them to a rule making board.

An industry group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said in a statement that it supports the state’s moves, as did several environmental groups that say the drilling could put the environment and public health at risk without more protection.

For the rest of the story visit, More Inspectors, Safer Gas Well Rules in Pa. Plans

AuthorMaggie Burke | CommentPost a Comment |
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Thursday
04Feb2010

The sudden emergence of the shale-gas frenzy

DateThursday, February 4, 2010 at 10:10AM

In their exuberance, oil- and gas-industry officials repeat a single refrain when describing the natural gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale:

A game-changer.

Tony Hayward, chief executive officer of oil giant BP P.L.C., was the latest to gush enthusiastically when he called unconventional natural gas resources like the Marcellus “a complete game-changer.”

“It probably transforms the U.S. energy outlook for the next 100 years,” Hayward said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The breathtaking emergence of natural gas as America’s energy savior was not in the cards. Just four years ago, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated Gulf Coast rigs and rattled gas markets, energy pundits forecast a bleak winter of short supplies, high prices, and low thermostats.

The vast scale of shale-gas resources has come into focus quickly, and industry officials are touting the possibility of steady supplies for decades to come.

For the rest of the story visit, The sudden emergence of the shale-gas frenzy

AuthorMaggie Burke | CommentPost a Comment |
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Thursday
04Feb2010

Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct

DateThursday, February 4, 2010 at 10:08AM

A drilling technique that is beginning to unlock staggering quantities of natural gas underneath Appalachia also yields a troubling byproduct: powerfully briny wastewater that can kill fish and give tap water a foul taste and odor.

With fortunes, water quality and cheap energy hanging in the balance, exploration companies, scientists and entrepreneurs are scrambling for an economical way to recycle the wastewater.

“Everybody and his brother is trying to come up with the 11 herbs and spices,” said Nicholas DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association.

Drilling crews across the country have been flocking since late 2008 to the Marcellus Shale, a rock bed the size of Greece that lies about 6,000 feet beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Geologists say it could become the most productive natural gas field in the U.S., capable of supplying the entire country’s needs for up to two decades by some estimates.

Before that can happen, the industry is realizing that it must solve the challenge of what to do with its wastewater. As a result, the Marcellus Shale in on its way to being the nation’s first gas field where drilling water is widely reused.

For the rest of the story visit, Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct

AuthorMaggie Burke | CommentPost a Comment |
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Wednesday
03Feb2010

Oil & Gas Still Impacted by Budget

DateWednesday, February 3, 2010 at 12:27PM

On Monday, the White House submitted its federal budget to Congress after previously releasing its proposed budget early last year. The repeal of several key tax incentives for the oil industry has remained in place from the proposed budget to the budget submitted to Congress. We continue to think that independent producers who primarily operate within the U.S. stand to be hurt the most. The bottom line remains the same: Cash taxes appear to be headed higher, which points to higher oil and natural gas prices in the longer term. With a higher cost structure, we wouldn't expect U.S. producers' profits to move in lockstep.

Here's a summary of the key oil and gas-related tax changes:

As it pertains to the budget, the biggest-ticket items include the repeal of the Gulf of Mexico royalty relief, the expensing of intangible drilling costs (IDCs), the manufacturing tax deduction, and the percentage of depletion method for oil and natural gas.
The Gulf of Mexico Royalty relief calls for lower royalties when commodity prices are below certain thresholds. Given the long investment cycle, large investment, and geological risk associated with offshore drilling, producers claim the royalty relief is necessary to reduce capital impairment risk. The budget also provides for a fee on nonproducing leases on federal lands (primarily offshore)--basically a "use it or lose it" clause.

For the rest of the story visit, Oil & Gas Still Impacted by Budget
AuthorBill Sinclair | CommentPost a Comment |
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Wednesday
03Feb2010

Natural gas royalties to improve Hare Krishna community

DateWednesday, February 3, 2010 at 12:26PM

On Sunday, dozens of people including members of the Hare Krishna community got together in Marshall County to sign over their natural gas rights. They see it as a way to invest in their community.

More residents in the Northern Panhandle area are being approached by natural gas companies to drill on their properties because of rich Marcellus shale reserves in the Appalachian Basin.
  
More than 50 people gathered at the Limestone Fire Hall in MarshallCounty for a “lease signing party” to seal the deal with Ohio-based AB Resources.
  
The area includes around 8,000 acres in MarshallCounty, with about 2,000 acres in the Hare Krishna Community, New Vrindaban.
  
Ralph Seward is one of the landowners who agreed to the deal.

“The most awesome thing is there are two different types of leases a drill lease and a non-drill lease, but here since we negotiated as a block everybody gets the same amount of money and that is great. I have a non-drill lease and I’m pleased, my wife is pleased we get the money same amount as if they were drilling on our property,” said Seward.
  
For the past several years, the Hare Krishna community near Moundsville has been struggling to find ways to refurbish its treasures like the Palace of Gold and its worshipping temple. The Palace of Gold has some crumbling concrete and metal fixtures that need replaced. The temple needs a new roof and doors.

For the rest of the story visit, Natural gas royalties to improve Hare Krishna community - WVPubcast.org
AuthorBill Sinclair | CommentPost a Comment |
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Wednesday
03Feb2010

Schuyler officials study potential impact of natural gas drilling

DateWednesday, February 3, 2010 at 12:25PM

Simply requiring a permit before a driveway is built onto a public road is one of many recommended actions Schuyler County municipalities could take to lessen the impact of natural gas drilling.

"The permit could be the trigger to tell us about a planned well," said Jerry Verrigni, district manager for the Schuyler County Soil and Water Conservation District, at a meeting of the county's Council of Governments on Wednesday night.

Verrigni was one of the speakers reporting on the work of four subcommittees of the county's Ad-Hoc Energy Task Force, which was organized in October by the Council of Governments.

The council includes representatives of most towns and villages in Schuyler County and the county legislature.

The purpose of the task force and its subcommittees is to study the possible impacts of natural gas drilling and other energy production projects.

"We need to be prepared for this and deal with it with continuity and collaboration," County Administrator Timothy O'Hearn said.

The subcommittees studied potential economic, social and environmental impacts, as well as the possible impact to public safety, public health, roads and infrastructure.

For the rest of the story visit, Schuyler officials study potential impact of natural gas drilling | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette
AuthorBill Sinclair | CommentPost a Comment |
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