Obama’s State Department is pitching the new hydrofraking technology worldwide, and Halliburton is delighted. Over the past two years, a controversial new drilling technique has unlocked massive reserves of U.S. natural gas, transforming the prospects for domestic energy production. The State Department has begun promoting the technology abroad, saying that if it were adopted in [...]
CBS’s “60 Minutes” reports on shale gas, an emerging energy source that burns cleaner than coal and could reduce U.S dependence on foreign oil supplies. Natural gas has always been the ugly stepchild of our national energy debate, never enjoying the political muscle of oil and coal, and never capturing the imagination like solar panels and wind [...]
Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday that unconventional sources of natural gas could represent up to 70% of U.S. supplies in 2030. Natural gas is going to play a critical role not only for the United States but for the rest of the world and unconventional gas resources will be at the center of the growth, [...]
The least-cost approach to cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions is for electric utilities to shift as much coal-burning power generation to natural gas as possible, according to DB Climate Change Advisors, a unit of Deutsche Bank. Yet it’s that “least-cost” option for power generation that has kept King Coal on top for so long. Coal [...]
Petroleum services giant Halliburton Co. said Monday it has begun publicly disclosing the identity of chemicals in solutions it makes to be pumped into the ground by Pennsylvania’s booming natural gas industry. A new Halliburton website provides information on the chemicals the company says are in its three most commonly used solutions in the state, [...]
Marathon Oil Corp plans to greatly expand its drilling program in the Woodford shale next year because it represents a superior investment, its chief executive said on Thursday. The Woodford shale in Oklahoma delivers high output rates at a more reasonable cost relative to North Dakota’s Bakken shale, where Marathon already plans to increase net [...]
Drilling shale to capture oil and gas is a technology that China, which burns a lot of coal, is eager to learn. That’s why it’s a partner in a south Texas ‘fracking’ project. Last month, China’s thirst for energy came to American shores. On Oct. 11, the government-run China National Offshore Oil Corp. agreed to [...]
The fuel has advantages over competing resources In his Nov. 3 press conference, President Obama voiced support for the role of natural gas in a forward-looking energy policy. In his words: “We’ve got, I think, broad agreement that we’ve got terrific natural gas resources in this country. Are we doing everything we can to develop [...]
Chevron, the second-largest US oil group by revenue, will acquire Atlas Energy in a $4.3bn deal that will give it a foothold in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale gas formation and help it compete with rival Exxon. “We are acquiring a company that has one of the premier acreage positions in the prolific Marcellus,” said George Kirkland, [...]
President Obama’s newfound interest in expanded natural gas drilling yesterday surprised many on all sides of the drilling debate, from environmentalists to drillers and even the coal industry. Representatives of drilling groups said they had no idea that Obama would make natural gas his lead olive branch to the newly empowered Capitol Hill Republicans. But [...]
