5-7-14

EIA releases complete Annual Energy Outlook 2014 report The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) today released the full content of the Annual Energy Outlook 2014.

EID-Mtn. States: Activist billionaire Tom Steyer poised to dump millions into anti-HF effort in Colo. (5/6)

NATIONAL

Eagle Ford likely to last longer than past booms. Houston Chronicle, EID’s David Blackmon. Today's boom in the United States is different in that we now have rapidly rising domestic supplies meeting rising demand. Where in the past the United States was forced to rely more and more heavily on imports from OPEC countries to meet its domestic needs, today's shale boom is enabling our country to actually lower oil imports on a daily basis, having cut them almost in half since 2007.

Thousands of natural gas workers rally in Harrisburg. Tribune Review. More than 2,500 natural gas workers and supporters joined what police called the largest gathering on the Capitol steps in years to rally for their industry. “We must prevent the misguided and ill-informed from hurting this opportunity,” Rettew Associates CEO Hank Rettew told the crowd at the industry's Pennsylvania Jobs Pennsylvania Energy Rally.

Shale supporters rally at Capitol. Associated Press. "There was no specific issue that brought us to Harrisburg, just a desire to show a united front," said Marcellus Shale Coalition chairman Scott Roy, a Range Resources vice president who previously was a top aide to former Gov. Ed Rendell.

Encana Corp doubles oil output with $3.1B deal to buy into Texas oil play. Financial Post. Encana Corp., the Canadian energy producer seeking to boost investor returns by shifting to higher-priced crude, doubled its oil production following a US$3.1 billion deal with Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. The agreement to purchase 45,500 net acres in Texas’s oil-rich Eagle Ford basin from Freeport’s oil and natural gas subsidiary “underscores our investment focus on high-margin assets,” Encana Chief Executive Officer Doug Suttles said Wednesday in a statement. NOTE: Reuters and Wall Street Journal also report.

Disposal wells may have role in Oklahoma's earthquakes. CNN. The Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association urged a wait-and-see approach in judging the USGS's assertions. "Because crude oil and natural gas is produced in 70 of Oklahoma's 77 counties, any seismic activity within the state is likely to occur near oil and natural gas activity. The OIPA and the oil and gas industry as a whole support the continued study of Oklahoma's increased seismic activity, but a rush to judgment provides no clear understanding of the causes," the industry group said. NOTE: UPI also reports.

Activist Threaten the Nation's Energy Boom. Houston Chronicle, Op-Ed. If industry or government estimates are close to accurate, a potential decline in shale energy supply is multiple decades down the road. The immediate threat is from anti-development activists pursuing litigation in an attempt to stop any production, anywhere at any time under any circumstances.

EOG Sees Rockies as North America’s Next Hot Oil Field. Bloomberg. EOG Resources Inc. (EOG), the shale driller that helped discover the prolific Eagle Ford formation in South Texas, has identified the Rocky Mountains as the next great opportunity in North American oil.

Climate change being felt across the United States, new report says. Daily Caller, Op-Ed. Although wasteful spending certainly needs to be curtailed drastically, there’s a third method of reducing our debt: stimulating economic activity that creates jobs and keeps more of our dollars here at home. One of the most promising resources for creating jobs and expanding commerce is sitting right below our feet — one to four miles below, to be specific.

INTERNATIONAL

China shale plans: Bad news for poor countries? CNBC. China's plans to establish a shale industry to rival the U.S.'s could see Beijing slash its energy imports—in a blow for some of the world's poorest gas exporters.

HF Revolution May Hurt Russia's China Ambitions, ODI Says. Bloomberg. Smaller developing countries including Angola, the Republic of Congo and Nigeria also stand to lose billions of dollars in lost revenue as a consequence of the boom in oil and natural gas production, according to the London-based Overseas Development Institute.

Nova Scotia's LNG hopes rest on securing gas supply. Globe and Mail. The crisis in Ukraine is adding fuel to Nova Scotia’s plans to become a liquefied natural gas export hub, though questions persist about where the developers will get the natural gas to feed their ambitions.

European Shale Can Ease Need for Russian Gas, UK Minister Says. Bloomberg. Technology could unlock shale resources in Europe and help wean the continent off Russian natural gas, U.K. Energy Minister Michael Fallon said after Group of Seven nations recommitted to energy diversification.

Mexico's Mature Oil Fields Key to Near-Term Production Gains. Wall Street Journal. Mexico expects an increase in crude-oil production in the next few years to come primarily from the reactivation of mature oil fields, which would be included along with other types of deposits in the first rounds of bidding involving private companies.

CALIFORNIA

Beverly Hills passes ban on HF. Reuters. City leaders in celebrity-filled Beverly Hills voted on Tuesday to ban hydraulic fracturing, becoming the first municipality in California to prohibit the controversial technique for extracting natural gas and oil from underground rock deposits. Environmentalists say chemicals used in the process pollute underground water supplies and cause other damage.

Los Angeles County businesses bullish on the economy, not so happy about taxes and fees. San Gabriel Valley Tribune. David Fleming, BizFed’s founding chairman, said Sacramento lawmakers have made it tough to do business in California. “All we have to do is get it,” he said. “We’ve been doing hydraulic fracturing in California for 60 years without incident. We should forget about all of those environmental arguments and start mining it. It would produce $25 billion a year for the state. It’s waiting for us if we just go ahead and take it.”

COLORADO

Oil, gas play a big role in local economy. Reporter Herald, Op-Ed. Having a conversation about fracking and its role in our community is perfectly legitimate, but banning it outright cuts Loveland off from a shot at community investment, economic growth and job creation that we deserve.

Hydraulic Fracturing Debate Needs Science, Not Superstition. Wilson County News, Op-Ed. Researchers in Colorado just came forward with a shocking claim: hydraulic fracturing, the decades-old method of using a high-velocity mixture of water, sand and chemicals to blast through rock to release oil and gas deposits, causes birth defects. There's just one hitch: it isn't true. Like many environmental activists' policy positions on natural gas development, this mistaken conclusion is based on a combination of faulty science, selective reading of evidence and ideologically-driven self-deception.

Drilling legislation stalls. Colorado Springs Independent. Initiatives aimed for the November ballot would allow voters to give local governments the power to ban hydraulic fracturing. It was thought that legislation to offer more power to local governments could prevent the controversial initiatives from going on the ballot, where many believe they will pass. But, as of press time, it appeared a compromise on such legislation could not be reached, and a bill would not be introduced.

Littwin: The big drilling bill, stalled. Colorado Independent, Blog. The big news out of the legislature is that the would-be hydraulic fracturing compromise bill is dead, a victim of bad clock management. The bill had to be introduced by Monday to have any chance of being done by Wednesday, the last day of the session. But, of course, it was too late in the session to get such a complicated bill passed.

ILLINOIS

Enviros Blasts IDNR. Progress Illinois, Blog. An environmental group is up in arms after learning that the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) apparently paid more than $35,000 to oil and gas groups to review draft rules related to the state's Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act, which Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law in June.

NORTHEAST

Deer Lakes Park drilling plan approved by Council, 9-5. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Allegheny County Council voted 9-5 early this morning to allow non-surface natural gas drilling beneath the county-owned Deer Lakes Park. After much debate and hours of public comment, members of council gave county Executive Rich Fitzgerald the votes he needed to pass a plan allowing the county to enter into what Mr. Fitzgerald has called the “most comprehensive nonsurface” gas lease in Pennsylvania.

Shale supporters fill Capitol steps. ABC Local. The politics of Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling were on full display in Harrisburg Tuesday. At least a thousand supporters of the industry walked from City Island to the steps of the Capitol for a pro-drilling rally. They wore matching T-shirts and carried signs and filled the steps. Their presence was an attempt to show all state officials how important shale drilling is to the commonwealth.

Astorino pushes for shale in Southern Tier. WBNG. Republican candidate for Governor Rob Astorino made a stop in Broome County Tuesday advocating for natural gas drilling. Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino took a tour of Vestal Asphalt where company President Neil Guiles said Pennsylvania drilling opportunities has led to nearly 100 new jobs at the facility.

Increased rail traffic has some concerned. CBS Pittsburgh. The boom in Marcellus shale gas extraction has increased train traffic from the occasional to the constant. Wheeling Lake Erie Railroad is hauling four times as much shale gas as three years ago and placards warn of the danger. “The material that they’re hauling is extremely flammable,” said Kobistek. “It’s explosive material. One derailment could be a catastrophe, especially in an area that is as populated as we are.”

Two new Marcellus pipelines for Pa. Philadelphia Inquirer. UGI Energy Services L.L.C., Valley Forge, on Tuesday announced two Marcellus Shale pipeline projects costing $80 million that will transport natural gas produced by Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. in northeast Pennsylvania.

Marcellus Gas Displacing Alberta Suppliers. Oil Price. For anyone covering the energy industry, it is often wise to take most production forecasts with a healthy dose of skepticism. The Marcellus shale gas production growth has turned out to be an exception to this rule. This 104,000-square-mile play, which covers parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, has been an overwhelming success, producing 14 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d).

OHIO

Youngstown voters reject HF ban in city for the 3rd time. Youngstown Vindicator. With city voters rejecting a citizen-initiative charter amendment to ban HF in the city for the third time in a year, supporters of the Community Bill of Rights say it will be back for a fourth time and more, if needed.

Apparent Compromise Expected on Severance Tax Proposal for Oil and Gas Drillers. Ideastream, Blog. For years state officials have been working on creating a new severance tax rate, as the shale gas industry continues to grow. This tax is the collection on gross receipts of drilling companies. Sources say a new proposal would set that rate at 2.5 percent. That lands right in the middle—between the House’s plan of 2.25 percent and Gov. John Kasich’s proposal of 2.75 percent.

Utica driller Eclipse Resources planning IPO. Columbus Business First. Eclipse Resources, one of the few private drillers with heavy activity in the Utica shale, hopes to raise $100 million in an initial public offering. The State College, Pa.-based oil and gas producer notified the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday.

OKLAHOMA

Devon adds Oklahoma acreage. The Oklahoman. Devon Energy Corp. is adding 50,000 net acres in one of its core operating areas, western Oklahoma’s Cana Woodford Shale. Devon will pay about $249 million in cash for the added acreage, which is part of a $497.4 million deal Cimarex Energy Co. negotiated with an unnamed seller.

Report warns of increased quake risk. Tulsa World. A study earlier this year by the National Academy of Sciences found no connection between the actual fracturing process and quakes. Instead, it focused on the way companies dispose of the wastewater produced in drilling.

TEXAS

Four Corners Oil and Gas Conference gears up for more than 2,200 participants. Farmington Daily Times. The 2014 Four Corners Oil and Gas conference is ready to launch and it is set to break attendance records. "This is going to be the biggest conference we ever had," said Karen Ortega, chair of the conference committee. More than 2,200 people from throughout the United States and Canada are expected to attend this year's conference, which kicks off Wednesday.

Friedman: Energy answer to Putin. Houston Chronicle, Guest Column. Since we've ruled out sending troops, our short-term ability to influence Putin has to rely on targeted sanctions. But the serious way to weaken Putin, whose economy and government budget is hugely dependent on $100-plus-a-barrel-oil, is with an American domestic grand bargain on energy that unleashes forces that, over time, begin to affect the global price and availability of oil and gas.

Eagle Ford Shale operator strikes $175 million deal with Indonesian firm. San Antonio Business Journal. Houston-based exploration and production company Swift Energy Co. and PT Saka Energi Indonesia have struck a $175 million deal to develop 8,300 acres Swift holds in the Eagle Ford Shale’s Webb County, officials say. Saka — formed as a subsidiary of Indonesia’s largest natural gas pipeline company — will pay Swift $125 million cash plus an additional $50 million to fund future development in exchange for a 36 percent full participating interest in the Webb County holdings.

Merger of Sabine, Forrest makes 65,000 Eagle Ford acres. Houston Chronicle/Fuel Fix. Two Eagle Ford Shale operators – Sabine Oil & Gas LLC and Forest Oil Corporation – are merging. The companies announced the all-stock transaction today, with the merged company to be called Sabine Oil & Gas Corp.

Denton Council reinstates moratorium on new permits. Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The Denton City Council voted Tuesday night to reinstate a moratorium until Sept. 9 on new drilling and hydraulic fracturing permits, a move that came just a day before opponents planned to present their petition for an outright ban on hydraulic fracturing within city limits. The 7-0 vote in favor of the moratorium was intended to give the city time to review and possibly change its drilling ordinance, city spokeswoman Lindsey Baker said.