Horizontal Stimulation
Pennsylvanian Cleveland. Cretaceous James Lime. Devonian Huron. These are three quite different formations—sands, carbonates and shales—in the Texas Panhandle, Ark-La-Tex and Appalachia, three widely separated U.S. provinces.What they have in ...
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May 7, 2008
Grays Harbor Basin
Such attention is directed at unconventional plays these days, but frontier areas prospective for conventional oil and gas still exist.One small firm has assembled a commanding position in a western ...
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April 21, 2008
Global warming free-thinker
Proponents of global warming are having their day in the sun. The tenet that human-caused activities have affected the atmosphere, and that this impact has already launched the planet on ...
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March 7, 2008
Ukraine’s Sea of AZOV
Canadian firm Shelton Canada Corp. focuses on opportunities in Ukraine, an Eastern European country that gained its independence in 1991. The company started working in Ukraine’s upstream about two and ...
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February 14, 2008
Illinois Basin CBM
Cleveland, Ohio-based oerator BPI Energy Inc. is dedicated to making Illinois Basin coalbed methane commercial. It’s been chipping away at the challenge since 2001, and it’s showing consistent progress. The ...
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January 4, 2008
SLATER DOME
An intriguing coalbed-methane (CBM) development is being pushed ahead by small Denver-based independent New Frontier Energy Inc. The company’s Slater Dome prospect, in the Sand Wash Basin of south-central ...
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December 6, 2007
Partial to parshall
North Dakota’s horizontal Bakken play is white hot in the vicinity of EOG Resources Inc.’s Parshall Field, a 50- to 70-million-barrel (net) gem discovered by the Houston-based operator in 2006 ...
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November 1, 2007
POWDER RIVER GAS FACTORY
In the span of a decade and a half, Wyoming’s Powder River Basin has been transformed from an inconsequential gas-producing region to one of the nation’s major supply provinces. And ...
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October 3, 2007
FIGURING OUT THE FLOYD
Determined operators are slowly chipping away at a tough shale play that could add another layer of production to the Black Warrior Basin’s unconventional resource mix. The Upper Mississippian Floyd ...
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September 6, 2007
PROSPERING IN THE PARADOX
A couple of discoveries are lighting up activity in the Paradox Basin of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. Denver-based independent Delta Petroleum Corp. is in the midst of an exploration ...
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August 3, 2007
GREEN RIVER OIL SHALE
The immense potential of oil shale overshadows existing proved oil reserves. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated world oil-shale resources of 2.7 trillion barrels, more than twice the 1.2 trillion ...
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July 11, 2007
Upstarts in Africa
Two small Houston-based firms each have gigantic projects under way in Africa. Offshore the east side of the continent, on the island nation of Madagascar, privately held Madagascar Oil is ...
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June 8, 2007
SIX EXPLORATION TRENDS
Petroleum exploration today is a complex and nuanced business, and the best approach is one that offers a broad portfolio that features multiple play types. “We’re living in a time ...
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May 1, 2007
THE LOUISIANA COAST
A state coastal restoration plan that will be financed by new federal offshore oil revenues is nearing completion in Louisiana. The plan will address the rapid loss of coastal wetlands, ...
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April 10, 2007
ALABAMA’S CAMBRIAN CONASAUGA SHALE
Dominion Black Warrior Basin Inc. has made a remote new-field discovery in northern St. Clair County, Alabama. The find is in the Valley and Ridge province of the Cotton State, ...
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March 20, 2007
BAKKEN BILLIONS
Success stories in the horizontal Bakken continue to mount. Production has spread from the play’s genesis in Richland County, Montana, into McKenzie, Golden Valley and Billings counties, North Dakota. The ...
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February 14, 2007
NORTH SEA SQUEEZE
During the past three years, several factors have fundamentally reshaped business activity in the U.K. North Sea. That reshaping has resulted in a brisk and brutally competitive market, according to ...
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January 16, 2007
COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN WATCH
A late October state lease sale in Washington produced some excellent bids, and served to swell the already considerable buzz about gas potential in the Evergreen State. Specifically, people are ...
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December 7, 2006
24 YEARS IN THE MAKING
Onshore wildcatting is on the rise, a wonderful aspect of the current boom. Some of these tests are long-cherished prospects: perhaps they were originally generated just before a price collapse, ...
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November 6, 2006
Volatile Venezuela
Trying to be a foreign oil producer in Venezuela can be a dicey proposition these days. However, where some companies see untenable political risk, others see the possibility of stunning ...
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October 3, 2006
