Shale Oil and Gas Industry News

The Great American Shale Boom, Posted on The Hindu Business Line

Plenty of land and water, a pipeline network, fracking and horizontal drilling specialists and competitive gas prices are key factors behind the success of shale exploration in the US. November 10, 2013: The shale gas bonanza in the US is such that every nation with this resource now wants to repeat it. With rising shale gas production, the US, the world’s biggest energy consumer, is now tipped to become the largest producer of hydrocarbons. [Read More…]

Crude oil tank cars ablaze after train derails in Alabama, By Verna Gates and Edward McAllister | Reuters, Posted on Chicago Tribune

ALICEVILLE, Alabama (Reuters) – Several oil tank cars that burst into flames after a train derailed in rural Alabama were expected to keep burning into Saturday, potentially reigniting the push for tougher regulation of the boom in moving oil by rail.Twenty-five of the train’s 90 cars derailed near a 60-foot-long wooden trestle in the early hours of Friday morning, and a number were still on fire 18 hours later, operator Genesee & Wyoming Inc said. [Read More…]

Canada’s Enerplus sells shale gas assets in Montney for $126 mil, By Ashok Dutta, Posted on Platts

of the Calgary-based firm’s land position in the Montney shale gas play in northeastern British Columbia. Enerplus also announced a separate deal that would boost its footprint in the Marcellus Shale play across the border to 60,000 acres from 17,000 acres currently. The deal is worth C$153 million, Enerplus said, but did not disclose the seller. A major reason for the Montney sale was the assets’ lower-than-expected liquids content, company CEO Ian Dundas said on a conference call to discuss Enerplus’ third-quarter 2013 earnings. [Read More…]

Fracking, for and against, By Brett Bundale Business Reporter, Posted on Herald Business

Controversial gas extraction method under review. Kansas, 1947: The war is over and demand for energy is booming. A pioneering oilman named Floyd Farris comes up with the idea of injecting a high-pressure fluid deep underground to stimulate a well. Using thousands of litres of napalm-thickened gasoline mixed with sand from the Arkansas River, the first well is hydraulically fractured. And an oil and gas revolution is born. [Read More…]