The debate over the safety of hydraulic fracturing continues. The Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based non-profit environmental advocacy organization, has issued a white paper, “Drilling Around the Law,” calling for fracking to be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act and to require public disclosure of chemicals used in frac…
The Mayor of tiny Dish, Texas, north of Fort Worth, continues to stir up controversy with his claims of air pollution from oil and gas activities causing health concerns in his community. The mayor appeared at the RRC’s January 12 open hearing. You can watch his testimony here (go to item 17…
The information below is from the Energy Information Administration. Note the wide variation in City Gate and Wellhead Prices among different states: Below is the same information in graph form. Why would average residential gas prices in Texas be $12.88 per mcf, while residential prices in California and Minnesota —…
Exxon Mobil announced that it would acquire XTO Energy in an all-stock deal worth $41 billion. The acquisition is viewed as Exxon’s decision to enter the domestic onshore gas shale play, which to date has been developed almost exclusively by independent producers. But the deal includes an exit clause in…
Dish is a town of about 200 residents north of Fort Worth, Texas. The mayor and town council have recently become concerned about emissions from gas compressors in and around the town, from the Barnett Shale gas development. Large compressor stations are located near Dish; these stations have big internal…
On December 15, the Railroad Commission adopted new field rules for a newly designated field, the Carthage (Haynesville Shale) Field, in East Texas. It also consolidated several previously designated fields in East Texas that produce from the Haynesville and Bossier formations into this single RRC-designated field. These rules will govern…
State Representative Lon Burnam, Dem. Fort Worth, asked nine questions of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality concerning its investigations of emissions of methane and volatile organic compounds from oil and gas operations in the Barnett Shale area and in Texas in general. Recent air quality tests by private companies…
Twenty-two U.S. House Democrats from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, Utah and Idaho delivered a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Director Lisa P. Jackson, cautioning the EPA to do a “reasonable and transparent study” of whether hydraulic fracturing of wells creates risks to drinking water. EPA is required to study whether hydraulic…
The International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a forecast of world energy consumption and use, and for the first time included a scenario projecting the impacts of taking steps to stabilize greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at about 450 parts per million by 2030. This “450 Secnario” would limit overall temperature increases…
I have recently received several inquiries about the rights of unleased mineral owners whose tract is included in the boundaries of a pooled unit. There seems to be some general miss-perception about this issue. A typical oil and gas pooling clause allows the lessee to combine separate tracts covered by separate…