Possible heavy truck traffic through the city's entertainment district prompts decision to table a vote on Chesapeake's permit to drill near Cowboy Stadium.
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Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Arlington City Council tables vote on proposed Chesapeake gas well near Cowboys Stadium | ...
Monday, January 03, 2011
Eagle Ford Shale Attracts Huge Interest
South Texas shale attracts interest, billions of dollars
By Brett Clanton, Houston Chronicle
Published: 10:12 a.m., Monday, January 3, 2011
Although still facing uncertainty on many fronts as 2011 begins, the oil and gas industry knows one thing: It likes what it sees in South Texas.
That's the site of the Eagle Ford shale formation, a vast underground network of dense rock layers, discovered only recently and now thought to be one of the nation's biggest oil and gas fields.
To this point, the formation has existed in the shadow of other big domestic shale formations best known for their supplies of natural gas, including the Barnett Shale in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
But that is almost certain to change next year as Eagle Ford's large quantities of valuable crude oil and natural gas liquids attract more interest and dollars.
"I expect the Eagle Ford would probably be the hottest single area in all the lower 48 states in 2011," said Mark G. Papa, chairman and CEO of Houston's EOG Resources, one of the largest leaseholders in the region.
Oil and gas companies of all sizes are trying to shift resources to the hunt for oil while natural gas prices remain weak.
And some of the world's biggest oil companies - including Shell, BP, Norway's Statoil and China's CNOOC - recently have entered the Eagle Ford and are helping to put it on the global energy map.
Surge in permits
On an actual map, the Eagle Ford shale play extends about 400 miles across South Texas in a 50-mile-wide band, from the Mexican border, below San Antonio and up into East Texas.
Though drilling has occurred in the region for decades, geologists recently discovered big deposits of oil and gas in deeper, dense rock layers once thought too difficult to reach - and it didn't long for others to take notice.
In 2010 in the Eagle Ford, 1,018 drilling permits were issued through November, up from 94 the year before, and output of crude oil, condensate and other liquids nearly quadrupled to 3.9 million barrels, according to Texas Railroad Commission data.
About 115 rigs are working in the area now, and companies so far have drilled several hundred wells.
While that's still below more developed shale plays, it's likely a small taste of what's to come. Many oil and gas companies plan to boost spending significantly and increase the number of drilling rigs they're deploying to the area next year, even as they're pulling back in gas fields elsewhere.
"The Eagle Ford Shale in 2011 will really hit its stride," said Ralph Eads, head of Jefferies' energy investment banking group in Houston.
Take EOG, which in 2010 averaged seven rigs in the Eagle Ford and drilled 110 wells. This year, it expects to have 14 rigs and drill 256 wells, Papa said.
Major deals signed
Oklahoma City's Chesapeake Energy, the largest leaseholder with 625,000 acres, also expects to double the dozen rigs it has working in the area. Ditto for Houston's Petrohawk Energy, which expects to spend more than twice as much as it did in the region in 2010. And ConocoPhillips, another major leaseholder, just leaped from seven to 11 rigs in the region.
"It does appear it will be a very busy year in the Eagle Ford," said Jim Lowry, a spokesman for the Houston-based ConocoPhillips.
U.S. shale plays, including the Haynesville in Louisiana and Marcellus in the northeast, are expected to provide a major boost to domestic natural gas supplies in coming years. But with gas prices low, some operators have been forced to curtail output.
And Eagle Ford, with its high content of valuable crude and natural gas liquids, has proved a haven for those who bought in early.
"The economics in the Eagle Ford are probably better than in almost any other play in the world," Eads said. "The returns are stunning."
That helps explain a recent surge of big-ticket deals there.
In October, China's CNOOC agreed to pay $1.1 billion for a 33 percent stake in Chesapeake's Eagle Ford acreage, marking its first U.S. onshore asset purchase. That same month, Statoil said it was joining forces with Canada's Talisman and would pay Enduring Resources $1.3 billion to develop Eagle Ford acreage.
In June, India's Reliance shelled out $1.3 billion to buy acreage and form a joint venture with Pioneer Natural Resources Co. And earlier in the year, BP and Shell bought into the play. Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest public oil company, also has a position in the Eagle Ford.
"We have high hopes for that area," Statoil CEO Helge Lund told the Chronicle in a recent interview in Houston.
But along with the optimism, some operators worry that growth could be held back by equipment constraints and a potential lag in building new pipelines, processing plants and other infrastructure. Right now, for instance, it's difficult to get hydraulic fracturing crews at a well site, Papa said.
Billions invested
Hydraulic fracturing uses a high-pressure mix of water, chemicals and sand to crack open dense shale rock and release oil and gas through a well.
Current drilling and production technologies allow extraction of less than 5 percent of the oil in place in the dense shale rock.
But equipment and service providers say they're determined to keep up with customer demands in the Eagle Ford.
"We think we're in a position to take care of their needs during this ramp-up period," said Jim Teague, the chief operating officer of Houston-based pipeline giant Enterprise Products, which so far has announced $2 billion in infrastructure investments in the region and expects more soon.
Considering the way things are looking for 2011 in the Eagle Ford, it may not be a long wait.
Read more: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/default/article/South-Texas-shale-attracts-interest-billions-of-934092.php#ixzz1A1Yww4Ta
By Brett Clanton, Houston Chronicle
Published: 10:12 a.m., Monday, January 3, 2011
Although still facing uncertainty on many fronts as 2011 begins, the oil and gas industry knows one thing: It likes what it sees in South Texas.
That's the site of the Eagle Ford shale formation, a vast underground network of dense rock layers, discovered only recently and now thought to be one of the nation's biggest oil and gas fields.
To this point, the formation has existed in the shadow of other big domestic shale formations best known for their supplies of natural gas, including the Barnett Shale in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
But that is almost certain to change next year as Eagle Ford's large quantities of valuable crude oil and natural gas liquids attract more interest and dollars.
"I expect the Eagle Ford would probably be the hottest single area in all the lower 48 states in 2011," said Mark G. Papa, chairman and CEO of Houston's EOG Resources, one of the largest leaseholders in the region.
Oil and gas companies of all sizes are trying to shift resources to the hunt for oil while natural gas prices remain weak.
And some of the world's biggest oil companies - including Shell, BP, Norway's Statoil and China's CNOOC - recently have entered the Eagle Ford and are helping to put it on the global energy map.
Surge in permits
On an actual map, the Eagle Ford shale play extends about 400 miles across South Texas in a 50-mile-wide band, from the Mexican border, below San Antonio and up into East Texas.
Though drilling has occurred in the region for decades, geologists recently discovered big deposits of oil and gas in deeper, dense rock layers once thought too difficult to reach - and it didn't long for others to take notice.
In 2010 in the Eagle Ford, 1,018 drilling permits were issued through November, up from 94 the year before, and output of crude oil, condensate and other liquids nearly quadrupled to 3.9 million barrels, according to Texas Railroad Commission data.
About 115 rigs are working in the area now, and companies so far have drilled several hundred wells.
While that's still below more developed shale plays, it's likely a small taste of what's to come. Many oil and gas companies plan to boost spending significantly and increase the number of drilling rigs they're deploying to the area next year, even as they're pulling back in gas fields elsewhere.
"The Eagle Ford Shale in 2011 will really hit its stride," said Ralph Eads, head of Jefferies' energy investment banking group in Houston.
Take EOG, which in 2010 averaged seven rigs in the Eagle Ford and drilled 110 wells. This year, it expects to have 14 rigs and drill 256 wells, Papa said.
Major deals signed
Oklahoma City's Chesapeake Energy, the largest leaseholder with 625,000 acres, also expects to double the dozen rigs it has working in the area. Ditto for Houston's Petrohawk Energy, which expects to spend more than twice as much as it did in the region in 2010. And ConocoPhillips, another major leaseholder, just leaped from seven to 11 rigs in the region.
"It does appear it will be a very busy year in the Eagle Ford," said Jim Lowry, a spokesman for the Houston-based ConocoPhillips.
U.S. shale plays, including the Haynesville in Louisiana and Marcellus in the northeast, are expected to provide a major boost to domestic natural gas supplies in coming years. But with gas prices low, some operators have been forced to curtail output.
And Eagle Ford, with its high content of valuable crude and natural gas liquids, has proved a haven for those who bought in early.
"The economics in the Eagle Ford are probably better than in almost any other play in the world," Eads said. "The returns are stunning."
That helps explain a recent surge of big-ticket deals there.
In October, China's CNOOC agreed to pay $1.1 billion for a 33 percent stake in Chesapeake's Eagle Ford acreage, marking its first U.S. onshore asset purchase. That same month, Statoil said it was joining forces with Canada's Talisman and would pay Enduring Resources $1.3 billion to develop Eagle Ford acreage.
In June, India's Reliance shelled out $1.3 billion to buy acreage and form a joint venture with Pioneer Natural Resources Co. And earlier in the year, BP and Shell bought into the play. Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest public oil company, also has a position in the Eagle Ford.
"We have high hopes for that area," Statoil CEO Helge Lund told the Chronicle in a recent interview in Houston.
But along with the optimism, some operators worry that growth could be held back by equipment constraints and a potential lag in building new pipelines, processing plants and other infrastructure. Right now, for instance, it's difficult to get hydraulic fracturing crews at a well site, Papa said.
Billions invested
Hydraulic fracturing uses a high-pressure mix of water, chemicals and sand to crack open dense shale rock and release oil and gas through a well.
Current drilling and production technologies allow extraction of less than 5 percent of the oil in place in the dense shale rock.
But equipment and service providers say they're determined to keep up with customer demands in the Eagle Ford.
"We think we're in a position to take care of their needs during this ramp-up period," said Jim Teague, the chief operating officer of Houston-based pipeline giant Enterprise Products, which so far has announced $2 billion in infrastructure investments in the region and expects more soon.
Considering the way things are looking for 2011 in the Eagle Ford, it may not be a long wait.
Read more: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/default/article/South-Texas-shale-attracts-interest-billions-of-934092.php#ixzz1A1Yww4Ta
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Saturday, December 18, 2010
EPA Wrong - Barnett Shale Gas NOT in Water Wells (courtesy of Powell Barnett Shale Newsletter)
A recent report conducted by The Powell Barnett Shale Newsletter research team disputes the findings of the EPA regarding the contamination of two private domestic water wells in Parker County. Here is a link to Powell's report:
Powell Barnett Shale Research Report
Powell Barnett Shale Research Report
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Pittsburg has No desire to become the Fort Worth of the North
NOVEMBER 16, 2010
Pittsburgh says "no" to drilling
Pittsburgh has made it emphatically clear that it has no desire to become the Fort Worth of the North.
The western Pennsylvania city became the first in natural gas-rich Pennsylvania to prohibit drilling after city council members, voicing health and environmental concerns, unanimously approved the ban on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. The council received a standing ovation after voting 9-0 to ban the search for gas within city limits.
Pittsburgh's decision is in sharp contrast to Fort Worth, the nerve center of drilling in North Texas' Barnett Shale, the biggest gas-producing area in the nation. Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns, speaking at a recent shale gas conference in Grapevine, said that Cowtown, with 1,200 producing gas wells in the city and more drilling planned, is "running out of places to put these wells."
Pittsburgh sits atop part of the Marcellus Shale, which underlies large chunks of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York and has become the scene of frenzied drilling and leasing activity. Major participants in the play include Fort Worth-based Range Resources, Fort Worth-based XTO Energy (now a subsidiary of Irving-based Exxon Mobil) and Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy, which all have substantial operations in the Barnett Shale. Range announced recently, however, that it plans to sell its Barnett assets.
--Jack Z. Smith
Read more: http://blogs.star-telegram.com/barnett_shale/2010/11/pittsburgh-says-no-to-drilling.html#ixzz15r8QsTnd
Pittsburgh says "no" to drilling
Pittsburgh has made it emphatically clear that it has no desire to become the Fort Worth of the North.
The western Pennsylvania city became the first in natural gas-rich Pennsylvania to prohibit drilling after city council members, voicing health and environmental concerns, unanimously approved the ban on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. The council received a standing ovation after voting 9-0 to ban the search for gas within city limits.
Pittsburgh's decision is in sharp contrast to Fort Worth, the nerve center of drilling in North Texas' Barnett Shale, the biggest gas-producing area in the nation. Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns, speaking at a recent shale gas conference in Grapevine, said that Cowtown, with 1,200 producing gas wells in the city and more drilling planned, is "running out of places to put these wells."
Pittsburgh sits atop part of the Marcellus Shale, which underlies large chunks of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York and has become the scene of frenzied drilling and leasing activity. Major participants in the play include Fort Worth-based Range Resources, Fort Worth-based XTO Energy (now a subsidiary of Irving-based Exxon Mobil) and Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy, which all have substantial operations in the Barnett Shale. Range announced recently, however, that it plans to sell its Barnett assets.
--Jack Z. Smith
Read more: http://blogs.star-telegram.com/barnett_shale/2010/11/pittsburgh-says-no-to-drilling.html#ixzz15r8QsTnd
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Monday, November 08, 2010
Quicksilver posts $21.8 million in earnings, record production
Fort Worth-based Quicksilver Resources reported a net income of $21.8 million, or 13 cents per share, on revenues of $237.7 million in the third quarter and achieved record production despite weak natural gas prices that have discouraged drilling activity.
Quicksilver said its third-quarter production averaged the equivalent of 362 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, up 16.4 percent from the third quarter of 2009.
In the Horn River Basin of northeast British Columbia in Canada, Quicksilver'sC-29-D well produced at initial rates of 14.4 million cubic feet of gas per day and averaged more than 12 million cubic feet per day during the first 22 days of production.
For a complete report, see Tuesday's Star-Telegram.
Read more:
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Devon's Hencken Unit B - Federal #9H - Tarrant County
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| Against the backdrop of an autumn sunset Patterson - UDI drills Devon's Hencken 9B Unit near Lake Benbrook, in southern Tarrant county. |
+Tarrant+Barnett+007.JPG) |
| Looking southwest from the overlook at Lake Benbrook Dam, A brilliant fall sun sets in southern Tarrant county. |
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Johnson County Mudd Farm near Rio Vista
+Tarrant+Barnett+001.JPG) |
| The drilling rigs use mudd to help seal and carry the drill cuttings to the surface. When the well is complete the mudd is usually spread out next to the location and plowed in. But sometimes there is no room to do this, EXAMPLE - a well drilled on a rocky hill side. So, operators need places to land farm this mudd. This mudd farm is on several acres of land south of Rio Vista, TX, on Hwy 174. |
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+Tarrant+Barnett+003.JPG)
Monday, October 11, 2010
Chesapeake's Edgecliff Pipeline/Compression Facility
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| Notice the massive solar panels used to power parts of this facility. |
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| In south Ft. Worth near I-35 and Altamesa Blvd, this large facility processes millions of cubic feet of natural gas daily. |
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| A closer look at the over-sized solar panels located on this pipeline/compression site. |
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Latest Hill County Source to Frac Area Gas Wells
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| A backhoe sits idle at the construction site of a large frac tank just south of Blum, TX in Hill county. The tank is complete, and is being supplied with water from Lake Whitney. |
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| The pipeline stretches from Lake Whitney eastward, crossing several large ranches. The line was threaded beneath FM 933 where it empties into the recently completed tank. Water is already being used to fracture some of Quicksilver Resources nearby gas leases. |
Friday, September 24, 2010
Blowin' in the Wind
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| A wind turbine propeller blade sits atop an 18 wheeler parked next to I-35 in Gainesville, Texas. I understand that these are manufactured in Germany and are shipped to the Port of Houston. They make the trip up I-35 to be powder coated in Gainesville for future shipment to wind farms in West Texas and other areas. Found the info on this blog: click here |
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| A closer link - This thing is huge! |
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Urban Drilling Rig in Tarrant County
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| Chesapeake's Benson 1H Unit McCart at W. Cleburne Rd. (Ft. Worth) |
Ongoing Frac Tank Construction in Hill County
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| Frac tank construction continues on Farm Road 933 south of Blum in Hill County, TX |
R U HOT?
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| Sign seen on Monday, August 23, 2010 while driving through Joshua, TX. The Dairy Queen usually projects an accurate time/temp reading on it's display. Monday tied a heat record reading of 107 for Tarrant county, but this reading seemed a bit much. |
Monday, August 16, 2010
Possible Frac Tank Construction south of Blum, TX on FM 933
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| Possibly a new frac tank being built on Farm Rd 933 about 5 miles south of Blum, TX. This construction is directly across the highway from the Steiner Vally Ranch property. |
Friday, August 13, 2010
Quicksilver's CR Shelby 1H Lease - Hill County
Located southeast of Blum, TX - Quicksilver Resources continues it's Barnett exploration with the CR Shelby #1 horizontal drill. Quicksilver and Cornerstone continue to remain active in Hill county, albeit on a much smaller scale than prior years.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Forest Oil's Duke Unit Production - Hill County
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Old Pump Jack Gas Well in Wise County Texas
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| McKissick Unit #1 (Boonsville Bend Cong) Completed 1979 |
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| Well was completed in 1979 - long before Barnett Shale Drilling |
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| Wise County Courthouse in Decatur, TX |
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