Fracking: the monster we greens must embrace – “Most environmentalists are in no doubt. The new technology of fracking to extract shale gas from the rocks beneath our homes is both a nasty neighbour and a sure recipe for climate Armageddon. Not only that, fracking was pioneered in the US, the gas-guzzling land of climate sceptics… However, I can't bring myself to condemn it. These drawbacks mean there are plenty of places where fracking would not be a good idea, especially in crowded Britain. But that is different from the blanket ban that most environment groups demand…Take the US. From a standing start a decade ago, it now gets more than a quarter of its natural gas from shale. Production is so cheap there that shale gas is replacing coal in power stations; and as a result its carbon dioxide emissions are the lowest since 1992. Low energy prices are even encouraging the manufacturing of some goods to return from China, where they were mostly made using coal-fired energy. What's not to like?.. Perhaps it is just too dangerous. The last environmental leader who proposed shale gas as a bridging technology was Carl Pope, director of the US's Sierra Club. He was hounded out of office for his pains.” (Guardian UK)

US shale gas export to desperate India could be game changer: Experts – “If America allows shale gas exports to India, it will not only help address the Asian nation's energy needs and strengthen bilateral relationship, but also end up being a game changer for the US interests in the Asia-Pacific region, say experts. "The US has this great leverage, in terms of energy exports. So, I think, that reinforces my view that we need to get this big thing going where there are much more 2-way trade -offs possible," former IMF economist, Arvind Subramanian, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told a Congressional hearing on Wednesday. "We should also particularly build in that dimension to our key security partnerships in Asia. In Asia our top most important, most capable security partnerships are with Japan and India in different ways "...say to them, look, part of this package could be preferential access or some facilitated agreement to US energy exports, because in fact, we have a national security interest in helping you develop your economy and helping you develop your military capacity, help us police this tough region in the world, create some ballast in Asia other than around China." [Dan Twining, a Senior Fellow for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States] (Financial Times)

Eagle Ford Shale Boom Fuels ‘Madhouse’ in South Texas Counties – “For the last 30 years, the quiet, dusty crossroads of Texas Routes 119 and 72 in Yorktown mostly consisted of a Dairy Queen on one corner, a gas station across the street and some traffic, usually heading somewhere else… The shale boom has changed all that here and throughout an oil-rich swath of counties extending to the Canadian border. Figures released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau show counties in south and west Texas are now among the fastest- growing places in the U.S. as oilfield workers rush to the Eagle Ford Shale. The underground formation holds an estimated 3 billion barrels of oil and 150 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. “It’s a madhouse,” J.E. Wolf III, a Yorktown real estate broker, said in a telephone interview. “I’ve been selling real estate here for 43 years, and I’ve never seen it like this.” While half of the 10 fastest-growing U.S. counties between 2011 and 2012 were in North Dakota, where the Bakken shale formation draws people to the sparsely populated Great Plains, Texas is catching up. Since the 2010 Census, Yorktown’s DeWitt County has grown 1.8 percent, more than four times faster than the entire previous decade’s 0.4 percent growth rate… Those workers earn their wages at the Eagle Ford formation, which stretches from the far north Houston exurbs southwest to the Mexican border. While the shale was a known quantity for a generation of geologists, techniques for extracting oil and gas from it have only become practical in the last decade. The first Eagle Ford well was drilled in 2008. The formation could provide as many as 900,000 barrels per day by 2016. The Permian Basin, deep in west Texas, may reach 1 million barrels daily, Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman said in a March 6 interview in Houston. By 2020, Texas’ crude output may exceed the 3.45 million barrels a day seen in 1972 if prices stay high enough to make drilling economical, he said. Eagle Ford oil output rose to more than 352,000 barrels a day in 2012, compared with 358 barrels a day in 2008, according to the commission. The number of drilling permits surged to 4,143 in Eagle Ford last year, up from just 26 in 2008, the commission said. (Bloomberg)

Does Fracking Make You Queasy? So Will the Trans-Pacific Trade Pact – “Today, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced Japan's intention to enter the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact (TPP). With Japan's entry, the trade pact will now include 12 nations along the Pacific Rim, including the United States. It's similar to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) -- only way, way bigger. And the threats it poses to the health of our families and the future of our planet may be much more severe. One of the reasons that Japan in interested in joining the trade pact is that countries in the bloc will likely get automatic access to U.S. natural gas. Normally, the Department of Energy is required to examine whether exporting U.S. natural gas is in the public's interest before it makes a decision on whether to export. That is a critical step in building a responsible energy policy that protects the public and the environment. But this crucial requirement is waived for countries that have signed a free trade agreement like the TPP with the U.S. This means that the United States could be forever ceding its ability to manage our own natural gas resources. It also means that even if U.S. exports are found to harm our economy and the environment -- as there is every indication exports would -- the U.S. would still be forced to send natural gas overseas to our trading partners without any review or delay. As the world's largest natural gas importer, Japan will fundamentally change U.S. energy policy as we know it by joining the TPP.” (Huffington Post)

Eni, CNPC Ink Deals in Mozambique, China Shale Gas – “Mozambique’s natural gas continues to attract Asian energy giants, with China National Petroleum Corp. striking a deal with Italy’s ENI SpAENI.MI +1.95% Thursday. According to a statement, CNPC will pay $4.21 billion for a 28.6% stake in Eni East Africa, which owns the Area 4 natural gas field in Mozambique, giving CNPC a 20% stake in the field. The deal comes after Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production PCL PTTEP.TH -0.65% last year beat out Royal Dutch Shell PLC RDSB.LN -0.02% for Cove Energy PLC, a London-listed exploration company focused on Mozambique, with a bid valuing Cove at 1.2 billion pounds ($1.8 billion). The CNPC-Eni deal, the biggest involving an Asian company this year, also gives a much-needed jolt to Asia’s M&A landscape, which is off to its quietest start since 2009, according to data from Dealogic.” (Wall Street Journal)

The Blessing That is the Eagle Ford Shale – “If you have wondered why the Texas economy has out-performed the rest of the country in recent years, you need look no further than that familiar check mark-shaped portion of South Texas that delineates the boundaries of the Eagle Ford Shale.  It is a blessing for Texas that the first successful Eagle Ford well was drilled in 2008, at about the same time the US economy was falling into a deep recession…Just how big is the Eagle Ford Shale?  In geographic terms, it spans all or portions of 25 Texas counties, covering an area roughly the size of the State of West Virginia.  By comparison, the legendary East Texas Field – to this point the largest producing oil field ever discovered in the lower 48 states – lay under a single county, and small portions of the four surrounding counties…How about in terms of capital investment?  According to a report released by the Wood Mackenzie firm in early January, Eagle Ford is now the largest oil and gas development on the face of the earth based on total capital expenditures. In the coming years, Wood-Mac believes total investment in the play will surpass even the $116 billion projected to be invested in the Kashagan project in Kazakhstan.  Even for Texas, that’s pretty big…Today, thanks largely to the rapid increase in Eagle Ford oil production, Texas produces about 30% of America’s domestic oil production.  This means if Texas were a country, it would be the 14th largest oil producing nation on Earth. The development of the Eagle Ford and other shale plays around the state has created a major windfall for Texas’s tax coffers.  Thanks to larger than expected severance tax collections, the Texas Legislature has more than $12 billion in the state’s Rainy Day Fund to work with over the next biennium.  This happy situation is most likely going to allow the Legislature to finally fund the state’s Water Plan, which has been sitting unfunded since it was approved in 1997.” (Forbes)

Tapping California shale oil could add millions of jobs, study says – “California's Monterey shale, which holds an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil, has been touted as crucial to the state's energy future and a boon to its economy. A study released Thursday tries to quantify the potential economic benefits. The study by USC and the Communications Institute, a Los Angeles think tank, estimates that development of the 1,750-square-mile formation in central California could generate half a million new jobs by 2015 and 2.8 million by 2020. Tapping the Monterey shale, which  holds an estimated two-thirds of the country's shale oil reserves, would probably require some combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, a practice opposed by many environmentalists worried about possible damage to land and water. The environmental impacts must be studied, acknowledged USC professor Adam Rose, one of the study's co-leaders. He said there are plans for additional reports to examine how developing the Monterey shale would affect water quality and seismic activity…"The Monterey shale would help stimulate the California economy to a significant extent," Rose said. "It's not just a benefit to the oil industry. These impacts ripple throughout the economy." Oil workers, for example, send their paychecks back into the community by eating at restaurants and shopping in its stores. The study forecasts that the state could reap oil-related tax revenue of $4.5 billion in 2015 and $24.6 billion by 2020.” (Los Angeles Times)

Carnegie Mellon University Lobbying for Creation of Shale Gas Research Initiative - Carnegie Mellon University researchers are in Washington today lobbying the Obama administration for the creation of an independent institute comprised of academics as well as government and industry reps to study the impacts of shale gas development. “Our researchers here say there’s not enough money to conduct the research we need to ensure we are protecting the environment and advancing new ways of doing things,” Stine said. Policymakers faced with complex decisions carrying economic, environmental, regulatory and social implications could benefit from such an effort, she said. Her team is proposing the creation of an organization similar to the Health Effects Institute in Boston. The institute is an independent panel that administers government and industry money to university researchers working on projects related to the automotive industry. She said five to seven regional shale research clusters, each funded at $4 million to $7 million a year, would help ensure that policymakers have information to make unbiased decisions based on solid science and engineering.” (StateImpactPA)

N.Y. Farmers Learn Fracking May Mean Drilling If Neighbors Agree - Kris VanSlyke doesn’t want fracking on the 170 acres in New York’s Southern Tier that have been in her husband’s family for 150 years. She may have no choice. VanSlyke got a letter last year from XTO Energy, a unit ofExxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), informing her that portions of her property are within range of a horizontal hydraulic-fracturing well the company wants to build if New York approves drilling. Under a 2005 law, the company doesn’t need VanSlyke’s permission to buy the natural gas under her farm once 60 percent of the land around the well is leased or owned. “We don’t want any part of it,” VanSlyke, 58, said in a telephone interview. “I don’t want it on my land, under my land, and really don’t care to have it on my neighbor’s land, because unfortunately water pollution and air pollution don’t recognize borders.” From California to Vermont, at least 39 states have laws that allow some form of so-called compulsory integration, which forces landowners to sell oil and gas beneath their property. In New York, residents like VanSlyke who oppose fracking rallied in Binghamton last week, asking the state to do away with the law. Governor Andrew Cuomo, a 55-year-old Democrat, is poised to decide on fracking in the next few weeks as an almost five-year moratorium draws to an end. Parts of New York sit atop the gas- rich Marcellus shale formation, and the governor must balance prospects for the booming economic development seen in Ohio and Pennsylvania against environmentalists’ warnings that fracking may damage water supplies and make farmland unusable…Landowners affected by the process can still get cash, either by becoming participants who invest and share risk with the driller, or as royalty owners -- the default if they take no action -- who get at least 12.5 percent of the revenue earned from their share of the gas. A third option allows for nonparticipating owners, who won’t earn anything until the company recovers three times the cost of building the well. VanSlyke said she and her husband aren’t going to sign a lease. If a future well on their neighbor’s land makes money and they receive royalties, it will get deposited in an escrow account, she said. The potential for fracking under the land has delayed their plans of creating an organic beef farm. “That was going to be my retirement to keep me busy,” the former computer-applications teaching assistant said. “Now, we’re afraid to buy animals because we keep reading when fracking operations come in, the animals get sick.” (Bloomberg)

OPEC: U.S. Shale Oil to Cut Into Demand – “The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cut demand for its crude this year, citing growing production of U.S. shale oil, potentially putting the group on track to have its lowest share of the global oil market in more than 10 years. This comes as industry experts increasingly question whether the producers group, which has had a decisive influence on the oil market since the 1970s, can maintain its position amid a boom in oil production in the U.S. thanks to the introduction of shale rock drilling technology. Senior figures in OPEC initially played down the threat of the shale oil boom, but in its most recent oil market report, published Tuesday, OPEC said expected increases in North American oil production would trim another 100,000 barrels a day from the forecast demand for its crude this year, putting it 350,000 barrels a day below its level in 2012. According to calculations by The Wall Street Journal based on historical data and the current forecasts from OPEC reports, if the group only pumps enough to satisfy demand for its crude this year, it would be supplying 33.1% of expected oil demand this year, down from 35% in 2012 and the lowest level in 11 years. Demand for OPEC's own oil is now expected to fall to 29.7 million barrels a day in 2013, compared with 30.1 million barrels a day in 2012, the group said.” (Wall Street Journal)

Shale gas rush: the fracking companies hoping to strike it rich – “It may not have the romance of the 49ers or the glamour of Dallas. But the Great UK Shale Gas rush of 2013 has all the features of a modern gold rush – small players risking their investors' money and hoping that they will be the ones to strike it rich. In October, the chancellor threw his weight behind the rush, saying he wanted to "[open] up the newly discovered shale gas reserves beneath our land" and promising that the government would consult "on a generous new tax regime for shale so that Britain is not left behind as gas prices tumble on the other side of the Atlantic". The big oil and gas companies have been notably less enthusiastic about shale gas – at least in public. The British Gas boss Sam Laidlaw and Christof Ruhl, the chief economist of BP, have both separately played down the potential in the UK, describing it as not a "game-changer". So far, the UK's nascent shale gas industry has just one big player –Cuadrilla Resources, which was formed in 2007. In February 2010 it received some serious financial muscle from Riverstone Holdings through its Cayman Island joint private equity fund with Carlyle, the US asset management giant. The two investors both hold a little over 40% of Cuadrilla. This gave Cuadrilla access to the funds it needed to begin serious exploration in the Bowland Basin between Blackpool and Preston in Lancashire where it has drilled six wells. Cuadrilla used fracking to explore for shale gas. But the controversial technique, involving the hydraulic fracturing of rock, was blamed for causing two earthquakes in Blackpool and drilling was stopped. Cuadrilla has now been given government permission to start drilling again. There is no immediate sign that returns on Cuadrilla's investments so far will be quick. Cuadrilla lost £8m in the year to December 2011 and about £12m a year earlier. The 2011 losses were three times bigger than the company's revenue. With just one big beast in the shale gas jungle, it has been left to a collection of smaller and less well-known companies to make inroads.” (Guardian UK)

Shale boom adds nearly 500,000 jobs – “We don't have to look far in southwestern Pennsylvania to see the economic impact of the natural gas industry in the region. But it isn't just Pennsylvania seeing that. Bloomberg video takes a look at what is happening nationwide with the shale boom. Correspondent Alix Steel reported that 115,000 mining jobs have been created over the past five years in the U.S. — about 2,000 a month.” (Pittsburgh Business Times/Bloomberg)

Canadian Natural Weighs Shale Sale Amid Glut – “Decisions by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNQ) and Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM) to sell almost half a million acres of natural gas-soaked rock threaten to depress prices for land that drew a record premium last year. Canadian Natural may sell 250,000 acres in the Montney Shale, one of western Canada’slargest gas finds. Talisman also is seeking a buyer for parts of its 200,000-acre holding, which it estimates may be worth as much as $1.5 billion. The Calgary- based companies join other producers who are offering acreage after Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Petroliam Nasional Bhd., or Petronas as the Malaysian company is known, paid billions of dollars for stakes in the Montney. It’s undeniably a buyer’s market,” said Robert Mark, a director and analyst at MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier Inc. in Toronto, which has C$2.5 billion ($2.44 billion) under management. “There is more up for sale than I’ve ever seen in my 12 years in the business, between land packages, joint venture opportunities and full companies.” Petronas’ $5.2 billion takeover for Progress Energy represented a 97 percent premium, the highest ever paid for an oil and gas producer worth more than $1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Exxon paid C$2.86 billion to buy Celtic Exploration Ltd. last month, or C$6,800 an acre for its Montney holdings, according to ITG Investment Research Inc.””  (Bloomberg)

Fracking's 'revolving door' draws a warning – “Many of Pennsylvania's policymakers, regulators and enforcement workers have come from the oil and gas industry they oversee, or they leave state jobs for industry jobs, according to a recent report that questions the impacts of such a "revolving door" on public policy decisions. A report titled "Fracking and the Revolving Door in Pennsylvania" identified 45 current or former state officials who have links to the energy industry and gas drilling and fracking regulation, including 28 who have left to take industry jobs. The 30-page report, released two weeks ago by the Public Accountability Initiative (public-accountability.org), a Buffalo, N.Y.-based nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization focused on corporate and government accountability, said that attrition from government jobs to positions in the regulated industry calls into question the commitment of those employees to enforce regulations on companies they could soon work for. Enforcement could also be hurt, the report said, when industry executives move into regulatory positions in government. According to the report, the last four governors, including Tom Corbett, have "strong ties to the natural gas industry," as do a number of administrators from previous governors' offices, and 20 DEP administrators and employees, Democrats and Republicans alike, including all five DEP secretaries since the department was created in 1995. That group includes DEP Secretary Michael Krancer, who was a judge on the state Environmental Hearing Board before his appointment as secretary. But prior to that, the report said, he was a general counsel at a utility, Exelon, that relies on natural gas, and once worked as a litigation partner at Blank Rome LLP, a law firm and lobbying group that represents natural gas interests and is an associate member of the Marcellus Shale Coalition. "The revolving door data in this report raises troubling questions about the incentives that may be guiding public officials' oversight of fracking in Pennsylvania, from governors to DEP secretaries to well inspectors." Robert Galbraith, a research analyst at Public Accountability Initiative, said in the report he authored… The report notes that Mr. Corbett received campaign contributions totaling more than $1.8 million from the oil and gas industry, and worked as a lawyer for Waste Management, a waste hauling firm that's a member of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a lobbying organization for shale gas development… "No doubt, Pennsylvania's citizens would expect their government to draw from talented citizens when filling important positions of trust," Mr. Shirk wrote. "But, to protect our taxpayers, Pennsylvania has strict ethics and disclosure laws to guard against undue influence in the policymaking arena.”” (Post-Gazette)

Health study holding up N.Y. decision on fracking – “A health study cited by leading environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as pivotal in helping persuade New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to hold off on plans for limited gas drilling is likely years away from conclusions about whether the technology involved is safe, according to the project's leaders. With New York entering the fifth year of review of the process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, growing calls to wait for the Geisinger Health System study to be finished could push a final decision back several more years, frustrating landowners and the industry that had hoped to begin tapping the gas reserve that lies below parts of the state… "We don't really believe that there is a fast answer here, if you're looking at the issue of health impacts," Andy Deubler, an executive vice president at Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, said in an interview. "You've got to have all the data before you can come to a conclusion."” (Associated Press)

Spain Shale Gas Reserves Estimated to Equal 39 Years of Demand – “Spain, a country that’s yet to produce its first shale gas, probably has enough resources of the fuel to satisfy domestic demand for at least 39 years, according to the nation’s Council of Mining Engineers. The estimated reserves of natural gas trapped in shale rock are about 50 trillion cubic feet, Fernando Pendas, a water and oil geology professor at University of Oviedo, said today at a briefing in Madrid to present the council’s findings. The estimate could double once exploration studies are finalized and more is discovered through breaking open rock using hydraulic fracturing, knowns as fracking. “If we don’t allow fracking, Spain would have missed out on a huge opportunity,” Pendas said. As many 100 companies have applied for permits to begin exploration using fracking in Spain during the past five years.”” (Bloomberg)

China's ragtag shale army a long way from revolution – “China's plans to unlock what could be the world's biggest shale gas reserves risk running further off track after 16 firms awarded exploration rights in the latest auction lacked one core skill - not one has drilled a gas well before. Beijing is hoping shale gas can transform the country in the same way as the U.S. boom, though to date there has been little commercial production and a target of producing 6.5 billion cubic meters of gas by 2015 in the world's biggest energy consumer looks out of reach, according to industry experts. The lack of experience exploiting shale among new firms scrambling to enter the sector will make it an even bigger challenge to get at the gas, and if they fail to deliver China will struggle to reduce its dependence on expensive imports of oil, liquefied natural gas and coal. The auction winners will have to buy in the expertise they lack, offering the prospect of lucrative contracts for specialist foreign firms such as Schlumberger (SLB.N) or Halliburton (HAL.N) for the "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) technology to get at the gas…. China's potential is clear. The government puts technically recoverable shale gas reserves at 25 trillion cubic meters, while the U.S. Energy Information Agency has them at 36.1 tcm, in both cases larger than U.S. reserves estimated at 24.4 tcm. But China's shale deposits are mostly found deeper underground than in the U.S. and reserves are more scattered, making it difficult to adapt the technology that has worked in the United States to China's geology. Big oil firms including PetroChina and Sinopec Corp (0386.HK) working on what are considered some of the best prospects are making slow progress. They had drilled more than 60 shale wells by May 2012, mostly in the southwest Sichuan basin, but PetroChina had produced only just over 11 million cubic meters in its most promising area by November.”” (Reuters)