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Injection Wells Suspended in Mid-Arkansas

The occurrence of 800 earthquakes in 6 months, has led to a halt on injection wells in a part of Mid-Arkansas. Chesapeake Energy and Clarita Operating agreed to comply with the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission’s request to stop all injection activities in Greenbrier and Guy area wells. Those wells are used for the disposal of waste water from production. The drilling is in the Fayetteville Shale formation.

Reported by AP, and printed in the Salem News, Saturday, March 5, 2011.

Getting gas in the Haynesville Shale formation in Louisiana

In Louisiana, there is the Haynesville shale formation, which drillers are finding at 13,000 feet below the surface. It is not known how successful they are in obtaining gas using hydraulic fracturing.

From Associated Press, Feb. 23, 2011 as reported in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Feb. 22, quoting Penn State geosciences professor, Terry Engelder.

Utica Shale Drilling Will Provide More Natural Gas

Just like the Marcellus Shale gas supply, a deeper shale layer promises to provide gas, too. Pennsylvania drillers are cashing in on this new layer, the Utica shale. Marcellus shale is about 7,000 feet below the surface of Pennsylvania. Utica shale is another 2,000 feet below that. The Texas company, Range Resources Corp. has drilled into the Utica layer in SW Pennsylvania, where they have already drilled many wells into the Marcellus layer. Marcellus shale is estimated to contain 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. That’s enough to supply the East Coast for about 50 years. Consol Energy tapped into the Utica formation and has a well that produces 1.5 million cubic feet of gas each day, in Belmont County, Ohio. Gas in both layers is obtained by hydraulic fracturing (fracking). That is the pumping of millions of gallons of water mixed with chemicals and sand. This method cracks open the shale and releases the gas.

From Associated Press, Feb. 23, 2011 as reported in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Feb. 22, quoting Penn State professor, Terry Engelder.

New Drilling Technique To Expand Oil Drilling In US

Oil engineers are using hydraulic fracturing to release oil from underground shale. This is the same method that gas well drillers have recently developed. This could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day. That’s more than the output of the entire Gulf of Mexico. EOG Resources was the first company to use horizontal drilling to obtain shale oil. This info was obtained from AP Energy Writer, Jonathan Fahey, Feb. 10, 2011.