The energy landscape is changing fast with so-called “unconventional” forms fast becoming the new norm, says accounting firm Ernst & Young. Of the $317 billion worth of oil and gas deals struck in 2011, $66 billion were shale-related transactions, up from $55 billion the year before. That trend is set to continue, and at the [...]
PetroChina Co. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc deepened their collaboration in exploring unconventional gas resources with the Chinese company investing in a Canadian project and the European oil producer pledging to help it step up drilling to tap shale reserves in the second-largest economy. China’s biggest oil producer said yesterday it bought a 20 percent [...]
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest energy company, will shift its investment focus to oil- rich shale in the U.S. because of lower natural-gas prices. “We are going to the lower end of our investment in the United States for shale gas,” Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser said today in an interview with Owen Thomas [...]
Claudia Cattaneo of the National Post discusses why shale gas is the place to be: The Obama administration’s endorsement last week of shale gas as a major pillar of its made-in-America energy vision ensures a long-term future for the resource. The big question is: How does the North American sector survive today’s depressed market environment [...]
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers announced new Canada-wide hydraulic fracturing operating practices designed to improve water management and water and fluids reporting for shale gas and tight gas development across Canada. “The hydraulic fracturing operating practices demonstrate the Canadian natural gas industry’s continued efforts to ensure responsible resource development and protection of Canada’s water [...]
By Steve LeVine When someone invites you to a party but leaves before dessert, it might be time to locate your own coat and hat. Such are the suspicions generated by Chesapeake Energy, which after selling numerous billion-dollar pieces of its vast shale gas holdings to the world’s largest energy companies has abruptly announced that [...]
Stephen Ewart, Calgary Herald’s Energy and Economics editor and columnist, delves into the communication uncertainty that plagues the hydraulic fracturing debate: As provincial authorities continue to investigate the blowout of an oil well in central Alberta that’s been linked to a nearby hydraulic fracturing operation, the incident appears to have been another case of bad [...]
Forbes decided to set the hydraulic fracking record straight by using facts, not playing on emotion like many of the frac-tivists do. To many walking the planet, fracking has a seriously bad reputation. Thanks to hyperbole and misinformation, fracking opponents have convinced a lot of people that the operators who drill and then hydraulically fracture [...]
Apache Corporation announced that it has agreed to acquire Cordillera Energy Partners III LLC, a privately held company with substantial operations that include approximately 254,000 net acres in the prolific Granite Wash, Tonkawa, Cleveland and Marmaton plays in western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, for $2.85 billion that use hydraulic fracturing to get oil and [...]
Provincial government geologists have confirmed Manitoba has shale gas worth exploring, the kind of gas that’s caused a continent-wide controversy over fracking. But it might be a decade before Manitoba’s gas catches the interest of energy companies looking for their next drilling targets. “We do have gas in our shale,” said Michelle Nicolas, a geologist [...]
