A case now before the Texas Supreme Court that addresses issues important to Texas mineral owners. The case, BP America Production Company, et al., v. Stanley G. Marshall, Jr., et al., No. 09-0399, asks the Texas Supreme Court to address the applicability of the laws of adverse possession to mineral…
Oil and Gas Lawyer Blog
Industry News
EIA Forecast of Energy Prices The Energy Information Administration has forecasted that oil and natural gas prices will rise slightly through 2011. It predicts oil to average $84/bbl in 2001, and that the Henry Hub spot price for natural gas will average $4.98/MMBtu in 2011, an incurease of 6% from…
MIT Releases Study on Future of Natural Gas
A study group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has concluded that natural gas will play a leading role in the U.S. over the next several decades, both in providing fuel for the nation’s energy needs and in reducing greenhous gas emissions. The study was conducted over two years by…
Rig Counts In Major Texas Shale Plays
RigData has compiled the numbers of active drilling rigs by county for each of the major shale plays in Texas: Barnett, Haynesville and Eagle Ford. These serve as a good measure of the degree of activity in each of the counties within these plays. The Barnett Shale rig count shows a total of…
New Report Provides Objective View of Debate Over Hydraulic Fracturing
A new report on the risks and advantages of hydraulic fracturing by Ann Davis Vaughan and David Pursell, “Frac Attack: Risks, Hype, and Financial Reality of Hydraulic Fracturing in the Shale Plays,” provides a much-needed objective summary and analysis of the recent debate over the safety of hydraulic fracturing. Ann Davis Vaughan…
EOG Proposes New Temporary Field Rules for Oil Wells in Eagle Ford Shale
EOG Resources has filed an application for designation of two new fields and for temporary field rules for oil wells in seven counties in South Texas (Eagle Ford proposed rules.pdf). Unlike its previous application, which sought to consolidate numerous Eagle Ford fields in Railroad Commission of Texas Districts 1, 2…
Use of Fresh Water for Fracture Treatment of Horizontal Wells in Shale Plays
A major issue in shale plays is the use of underground supplies of fresh water to fracture-stimulate the well. Horizontal shale wells are fracture-treated with fresh water to which various chemicals are added, and huge volumes of fresh water are needed. A 5,000-foot lateral horizontal well will use up to…
John Hanger, Secretary of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Comments on Movie Gasland
John Hanger, head of the agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania, said in an interview by the Philadelphia Inquirer that the movie Gasland, by Josh Fox, was “fundamentally dishonest” and “a deliberately false presentation for dramatic effect,” and called Fox a “propagandist.” Hanger was interviewed…
EOG Withdraws Application for Temporary Field Rules in Eagle Ford Shale
At the hearing today before the Texas Railroad Commission for consideration of EOG Resources’ application for temporary field rules for a new field consolidating 27 existing fields in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, the applicant EOG Resouces announced that it was withdrawing its application. (See my previous post on this application…
Three Documentaries About Drilling in Shale Plays
Remarkably, three full-length documentaries are in circulation about the perils and benefits of the new shale drilling boom in the US. The first, Gasland, relates stories of the horrors caused by drilling in locations across the country. It won an award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and is now showing…