A post on the Seeking Alpha blog details how successful Chesapeake Energy has been at rapidly leasing enormous acreages in all of the major natural gas shale plays in the United States. They author calls them a “land acquisition machine”.
Shale Properties
Chesapeake Energy: Land Acquisition Machine
What is the Deep Carbon Observatory?
The Deep Carbon Observatory is an initiative dedicated to achieving a transformational understanding of Earth’s deep carbon cycle, including its poorly constrained reservoirs and fluxes, the unknown role of deep biology, and unexplored influences of the deep carbon cycle on critical societal concerns related to energy, environment and climate.
$21B Spend on Shale Gas M&A During first 1/2 of 2010
An article on the EngineerLive.com website reports that during the first half of 2010 US shale gas merger and acquisition expenditures totalled $21 billion.
What is Shale?
The fine-grained, laminated, fissile, sedimentary rock that is quickly transforming the energy industry and regional economies. A Geology.com article about the use of shale as a reservoir rock, a construction material and a raw material for manufacturing.
No Gas in Columbia and Luzerne Counties (PA)
Encana Oil and Gas announced that their two Marcellus Shale wells in Luzerne County were not commercial and that they will immediately stop drilling in Columbia County and Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. They have 25,000 acres under lease in those counties. More at The Times Leader.
Columbia and Luzerne counties are in the eastern part of the state where the rocks have been metamorphosed to a level where much of the natural gas has probably been driven off or destroyed.
China National Offshore Oil Corporation Buys into Eagle Ford Shale
CNOOC, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, has agreed to purchase a 1/3 stake in Chesapeake Energy’s Eagle Ford Shale properties in South Texas for over $1B. More at Reuters.com.
Chevron to Buy Atlas Energy for $4.3B
Chevron announced that it will purchase Atlas Energy, a company with extensive holdings in the Marcellus Shale gas play of Pennsylvania for $4.3 billion. More at CNN Money.
Driller’s Rights vs. Landowners Rights
Who owns the mineral rights beneath your property? That can determine what drilling companies can do and what rights a landowner has when drilling begins. More in an article on the ArkTimes.com website.
EnCana Acquires 250,000 Collingwood Shale Acres
EnCana reports that they purchased 250,000 net acres above the Collingwood Shale in Michigan. More on the Bloomberg.com website.
Horizontal Drilling / Hydraulic Fracturing Video
Encana has an informative video on their website that illustrates and explains the horizontal driling / hydraulic fracturing techniques used for many natural gas wells drilling in shale. Look for the video link on the right of the page – the video file is very large but worth waiting for the long download.
Drilling the New Albany Shale in Illinios
An article in the Evansville Courier & Press reports that Eagle Resources is planning to drill the New Albany Shale in Edwards County Illinois. They have paid $6/acre/year for the leases.
The Duvernay Gas Play
An article in The Vancouver Sun reports on a Canadian shale gas play known as the “Duvernay” that is expected to bring hundreds of millions of dollars in auction revenues to the Province of Alberta.
Shale as a Long-Term Income Stream
An article in the Houston Chronicle explores why major oil companies have taken an interest in natural gas shales. Part of the reason is that the resource has a long lifetime.
Is Exxon Mobil Changing Direction on Oil and Gas?
Exxon Mobil has made some major recent investments in onshore natural gas that have some people asking if the company is changing directions. An article on the Houston Chronicle website reports on comments by David Rosenthal, Exxon Mobil’s VP of Investor Relations that address these questions.
