Drilling brings economic highs and lows to North Dakota - "Oil extracted from wells ringing Williston, North Dakota, helped push the state’s surplus to a record $1.6 billion and generate the nation’s lowest jobless rate. Drilling also left the city broke. While the U.S. Census counts about 16,000 residents, Williston says it provides services to more than 38,000, including workers living in temporary camps, hotels, and even vehicles. Keeping up with the load is spurring budget gaps that will deplete rainy-day funds, according toStandard & Poor’s, which cut city debt to BBB+ in December, three steps above junk. The $5.8 million of debt the city sold in December for water and sewer work is a fraction of the $625 million officials say they need for roads, the airport, water supplies and other facilities to handle the Bakken oil boom. The issue, which is exempt from state taxes, included debt due in May 2019 priced to yield 1.5 percent, about 0.75 percentage point above benchmark municipal securities, data compiled by Bloomberg show. “Williston is the epicenter of this and it’s been, to some extent, destroyed,” said state Representative Robert Skarphol, whose district encompasses part of the city. The Republican has sponsored a bill that would return more oil revenue to Williston."" (Bloomberg)

Cuomo misses another fracking decision deadline - "As another deadline for enacting New York fracking regulations comes and goes with no action, environmental groups and other organizations are renewing their call for public participation in a health impact review. Wednesday is the deadline for the Department of Environmental Conservation to issue a final version of its proposed regulations for gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. But Commissioner Joe Martens has said the regulations won’t be completed until the state health commissioner concludes his review of health impacts. If new regulations are proposed, they’ll be subject to at least a 45-day comment period. A coalition of groups is holding a news conference Wednesday calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to conduct a state-specific health impact assessment with public participation." (Democrat and Chronicle)

EQT Corp. donates funds to Cambridge Firefighters Association - "The EQT Corp. is making its presence known in Guernsey County, not only for its gas and oil activities, but also because of its generous donations to local entities. Cambridge Firefighters Association, Local 910, was the latest beneficiary of EQT's generosity. This past week Mike Warner, president of the Cambridge Firefighters Association, accepted a check for $23,335 from Jessica Baker, community adviser for EQT, at the Cambridge Fire Department. "EQT is happy to support fire departments for their hard work and dedication within their communities," Baker said. "The check was a result of a grant from EQT's Foundation."..."There is no way we could afford the laptops without EQT's donation. The laptops are another tool for first responders and for the safety of the citizens of our county."" (The Daily Jefferson)

ConocoPhillips,  Canacol  to  Look  for  shale oil  in  Colombia  - "Canacol Energy Ltd, a Calgary, Canada, firm that operates in Colombia, said Wednesday it will explore for shale oil with ConocoPhillips (COP) in Colombia's Middle Magdalena basin. Under the terms of the deal, ConocoPhillips will pay $13.5 million in cash and carry the cost of the drilling, completing, and testing of up to 13 wells. In a statement, Canacol said the agreement between the two companies calls for exploration and potential development of the Santa Isabel contract, one of five contracts that Canacol has interest in totalling 334,000 net acres "that expose [Canacol] to a potentially large unconventional shale oil play as supported by recent drilling results." Texas' ConocoPhillips will get 70% of any shale oil found in the deeper areas while Canacol would retain the other 30% and keep 100% of the rights of shallower reservoirs." (Fox Business)

Japan wants U.S. to export shale natural gas - "When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met President Barack Obama in Washington last week he asked the US to permit exports of its gas to Japan. Tokyo has also announced up to Y1tn ($10.9bn) in credit guarantees to fund investments by Japanese companies in shale gas projects. That Japan is interested in US gas should come as no surprise. Japan is the world’s largest buyer of liquefied natural gas, and later this decade the US will start exporting some of its huge surfeit of domestically produced shale gas in the form of LNG. But the possibility of a new east-west trade axis has huge implications for the international gas market. The emergence of US export capacity is leading to a significant rethink of the way gas is priced – a development that is causing ructions throughout the LNG industry, affecting both producers such asExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell and consumers such as Mitsubishi and Tokyo Electric Power, Japan’s largest utility. “LNG has become a big political issue,” says one Japanese trading house executive.”” (Financial Times)

China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec) strikes deal with Chesapeake for Okalhoma shale drilling rights - "Sinopec's $1.02 billion deal with Chesapeake Energy Corp. gives the Chinese energy producer a stake in an Oklahoma shale oilfield for less than one-third of its estimated value. China Petrochemical Corp., the Beijing-based energy giant known as Sinopec, will take a 50 percent interest in 850,000 acres Chesapeake controls in the Mississippi Lime formation, the companies announced Monday in separate statements. The price equates to $2,400 an acre, less than the $7,000 to $8,000 at which Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake valued the asset in a July presentation. The deal involves drilling rights across an area twice the size of New York City with wells that Chesapeake said were pumping the equivalent of 34,000 barrels of crude a day in the final three months of 2012..."This is the first joint-venture deal Chesapeake has ever done without a drilling carry," Hanson said. For Chesapeake, "this looks pretty underwhelming," he said."" (Tulsa World)

Russia considering shale - "The Russian Natural Resources and Environment Ministry will carry out an analysis and geological study of resources and reserves in non-traditional gas deposits, including shale gas. There is a lot of focus on extraction of shale oil and gas in the mineral material base preservation program, which was drafted by the Natural Resources Ministry. The document will be discussed at a government session Thursday..."In order to develop shale gas an analysis of Russia's shale deposits is envisaged and the development of methods for revealing gas filled zones, their classification, D1 resource evaluation, C1+C2 reserve categories and the development of technologies for extracting shale gas. In addition, development of shale gas deposits requires rational selection of optimum experimental and industrially developed facilities and a forecast on possible production volumes taking into account the impact on the environment," the [program draft] document says."" (KYIV Post)