The controversy surrounding perceived hazards of contaminating ground and surface fresh water from hydraulic fracturing has led service companies and operators to disclose much more about the fluids and practices that are essential for tapping the vast gas and oil resources trapped in shales, tight sands, and coals.
Crude oil prices hit their highest peaks so far this year in early December, with West Texas Intermediate at a 25-month high and North Sea Brent above the "psychologically important" $90/bbl.
In a prewinter analysis of Chinese natural gas demand for the 2010-11 heating season, Poten & Partners, New York, reports that the country's National Development and Reform Commission had demanded a 20% increase in gas supplies to avoid a recurrence of last winter's shortages.
The US Department of the Interior is considering whether existing regulations need to be expanded or new rules need to be developed for hydraulic fracturing and other natural gas exploration and production activities on public lands, DOI officials said at a Nov. 30 forum at DOI's headquarters.
Three trade associations representing natural gas producers endorsed the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission and Groundwater Protection Council's joint effort to create a state-based public registry of hydraulic fracturing fluid ingredients.
If upstream and midstream businesses ever wondered how comprehensive the US Environmental Protection Agency's proposed greenhouse gas regulations would be, EPA supplied a Beatles-like answer on Nov. 30: The rules will be here, there, and everywhere.
Rashid Javanshir, head of BP PLC's subsidiary in Azerbaijan, said production will be reduced next year at the massive Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
The plot thickened in Uganda last week when word emerged that Italy's Eni SPA is seeking a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni over its interest in the country's oil licenses in the Lake Albertine Graben.
Brazil's lower house of congress has approved long-awaited oil industry legislation granting the federal government greater control over deepwater reserves off the nation's coast.
While another year of price distress awaits US producers of natural gas from shale reservoirs, technology has lowered breakeven thresholds of important plays, speakers said at an industry conference in Houston.
