Chinese Study Claims CO2 Better than Water in Fracking
From time to time MDN highlights new technologies used in shale drilling. We’ve talked about companies developing alternatives to water as a fracking fluid, things like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or propane) fracking (see eCORP Tests New Waterless LPG Fracking Method on First Shale Well), and using baby oil as a fracking fluid (see ecorpStim Successfully Fracks PA Marcellus Well Using Baby Oil). Chinese researchers claim they’ve tested fracking with carbon dioxide (CO2), and it works better than water and is (somehow) better for the environment.
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MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA Auditor General urges Game Commission to fix its finances, better monitor gas & oil lease revenues; Ohio House approves bill to aid nuclear, coal power plants; NATIONAL: U.S. E&Ps hold line on capex, but production genie out of the bottle as natgas, oil surge; Increased need for oilfield services could tempt majors toward acquisitions: CEO; ‘9 in 10 US shale oil companies burning cash’ – Rystad Energy; Green group updates its takedown of natural gas as bridge to climate solution.
Maya van Rossum, who fancies herself as THE Delaware Riverkeeper, has her knickers in a twist. She’s just woken up to the fact that New Fortress Energy, which is building an LNG liquefying plant in northeastern Pennsylvania (see 
Antero Resources sued EnerQuest Oil & Gas in a Texas court last year claiming EnerQuest had solicited and received trade secrets for a pair of landmen who live and work in Texas. A lower court dismissed the lawsuit based on a technicality (because the solicitation from EnerQuest came via email), claiming Texas does not have jurisdiction over the case. Antero disagrees and has just asked the Texas Supreme Court to review the case.
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, collects data on all aspects of the U.S. energy industry. We spotted a newly updated spreadsheet issued by EIA that lists all “liquids” pipeline projects from 2010 to the present (and planned into the future). That caused us to look for another spreadsheet EIA produces (also recently updated) showing all natural gas pipeline projects from 1996 to the present (and planned). Jackpot! We culled both lists and have pulled out just those projects (below) for the Marcellus/Utica.
Month after month Marcellus/Utica production continues massive grow at around one-third of a billion cubic feet (see 
Last December MDN told you that even though NEXUS Pipeline, a $2.6 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that runs from Ohio into Michigan is built and has been fully online since November, the Coalition to Reroute NEXUS (CORN), along with the City of Oberlin, Ohio, filed yet another lawsuit (with the D.C. Court of Appeals) to nullify the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) original decision to approve the project (see 
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected hearing a case appealed from a lower court by a group of Lancaster County landowners who claim Williams and their Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project abused eminent domain authority by building the pipeline before litigating (for years) how much money landowners should receive–landowners who refused to negotiate in good faith in the first place.
In April MDN told you that Pennsylvania State Senators Camera Bartolotta (Washington County) and Pat Stefano (Fayette County) had beaten PA Gov. Tom Wolf at his own game by offering to pay for his so-called Restore PA plan, not by using a severance tax on shale production, but instead by allowing more shale drilling on PA state lands (see 
In April, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, who is pro-coal (because much of his personal fortune comes from coal), took a swipe at shale drillers claiming shale is responsible for the poor condition of roadways in the Mountain State (see 
Pennsylvania Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, and the anti-drilling Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, continue their tag-team effort to criminalize and humiliate Range Resources. Shapiro, a sleazy politician, is investigating so-called environmental “crimes” committed by shale companies in a bid to boost his chances of being the next nominee to run for governor (see 
U.S. Senator John Cornyn, Republican from Texas, along with Republican Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, along with (surprise!) two Democrat Senators, Chris Coons from Delaware and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, are all co-sponsoring a new bill called the Launching Energy Advancement and Development through Innovations for Natural Gas (LEADING) Act. While on the surface the bill seems to be addressing mythical man-made global warming, it’s true intent is to ensure loony birds in federal and state governments don’t outlaw the use of natural gas to generate electricity.