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Beaver dams have so far prevented about 1 million gallons of fracking wastewater discovered spilled July 8 from a rural North Dakota pipeline from spreading too far. But area residents, environmentalists and even a Republican state legislator all want more reliable measures. The spill of the toxic saltwater, a byproduct of hydraulic fracturing, came from gas extraction operations at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and occurred days before it was discovered. The federal Environmental Protection Agency said the underground pipeline spilled about 24,000 barrels, or 1 million gallon, in North Dakota’s thriving oil and gas region. The water, which can...

At a recent town hall meeting in Edmond, Oklahoma, local citizens gathered to discuss the possible connection between fracking and increased seismic activity in their area. According to one published report, members of the audience left “disappointed” that no consensus had been reached linking fracking and seismic activity. According to the same report, many in the audience appeared to be “hostile to the oil and gas industry.” Even in this most oil-friendly of states, it seems, there is a rush to judgment linking fracking to every conceivable sort of damage.

Study links Oklahoma earthquake swarm with fracking operations By Hailey Branson-Potts [skip to the last paragraph if you want to skip the nonsense.] Oklahoma ... boom ... recent years: oil and gas production and earthquakes. To many residents, the timing .... Before the oil and gas industry started drilling... rare to feel an earthquake. Today, Oklahoma... second-most seismically active state .... Now ... fresh scientific evidence .... Researchers from Cornell University and the University of Colorado say a large swarm of earthquakes ... caused by ... disposal wells, ... wastewater from drilling operations ... hydraulic fracturing ... deep geological formations.......

BERLIN—Germany plans to halt shale-gas drilling for the next seven years over concerns that exploration techniques could pollute groundwater. "There won't be [shale-gas] fracking in Germany for the foreseeable future," Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said Friday. The planned regulations come amid a political standoff with Russia, Germany's main natural gas supplier, and following intensive lobbying from environmentalists and brewers concerned about possible drinking-water contamination. The production of shale gas requires the application of the hydraulic fracturing technology known as fracking, which involves using a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals to break apart rocks to release the gas. The...

Why the Amazing Bakken Growth Story Isn't Over Yet By Callum Turcan | More Articles July 4, 2014 | Comments (0) As many energy investors know, North Dakota's oil production recently surpassed 1 million barrels a day. Does this mean that the growth story is now over and all the best locations have been drilled, or, as downspacing allows oil and gas companies to target the Three-Forks benches just below the Middle Bakken interval, is the growth story still underway? Only time will tell, but Oasis Petroleum (NYSE: OAS  ) is one E&P player trying to shake things up by targeting the deeper...

People will be more likely to support fracking if they have a direct commercial interest in the extraction of shale oil and gas beneath their land, Mayor of London says. British households should be given ownership of the oil and gas beneath their homes so that they have a commercial interest in supporting fracking, Boris Johnson has said. The Mayor of London said that the law should be changed so that “mineral rights” belonged to the landowner, rather than the Crown. Currently, the Government grants licences to companies to explore for and produce oil and gas, while the owners of...

"Crisis" may be a little hyperbolic. But shale production of oil and gas in America suddenly got a lot riskier this week. That's because of a landmark decision from one of the highest state courts in the land. Upholding the right of individual towns to regulate shale drilling, trumping state or federal regulatory regimes. The ruling came down yesterday in New York. Where the State Court of Appeals voted 5-2 to reject challenges to fracking rules imposed on the oil and gas industry by two municipalities in the state: Dryden and Middlefield. The saga started in 2011. When the two...

Motley Fool: The World Has 53.3 Years of Oil Left By Matt DiLallo | More Articles |  June 22, 2014 |   Photo credit: BP. BP (NYSE: BP  )  has provided an intriguing update to its global oil reserves estimate in the company's latest yearly review of energy statistics. BP raised its reserve estimate by 1.1% to 1,687.9 billion barrels, which is enough oil to last the world 53.3 years at the current production rates. However, there's likely a lot more oil left in the tank beyond what BP sees today. America's energy boom surgesA good portion of the growth in global oil reserves in BP's report comes from the...

There was a lot of hoopla last week over the news that the U.S. Department of Commerce had seemingly loosened rules governing the export of condensate — light weight hydrocarbons recovered from oil and gas wells. The excitement was palpable; shares in in oil refiners sold off. Was this the start of the big policy shift that oil producers have been dreaming of? An end to the 40-year oil export ban?

New York’s cities and towns can block fracking within their borders, the state’s highest court rules, upholding the dismissal of lawsuits challenging bans in two small upstate towns.The ruling could lead the oil and gas industry to abandon fracking in New York, or it could mean that a patchwork of rules eventually may govern whether exploration can take place across the state; the case also may invigorate local challenges to the practice in states across the U.S.Parts of New York sit above the Marcellus Shale, some of whose top producers are: CHK, RRC, RDS.A, RDS.B, TLM, APC, ATLS, COG, CVX,...

New York’s top court handed a victory to opponents of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas Monday by affirming the right of municipalities to ban the practice within their borders. The state Court of Appeals affirmed a midlevel appeals court ruling from last year that said the state oil and gas law doesn’t trump the authority of local governments to control land use through zoning. […] The court in a 5-2 decision stressed that it did not consider the merits of fracking, but only the “home rule” authority of municipalities to regulate their land use. The court said the towns of...

Energy boom fuels economic growth in Midwest states     The drilling rig floor is slick with grease and oil in Watford City, N.D., Dec. 17, 2013. Jim Gehrz / Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT By Patrick Gillespie McClatchy Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- While the national business outlook remains tepid, the energy sector is driving fast economic growth in some states.A drilling boom for oil shale and natural gas has spurred prosperity throughout the middle of the United States. Despite having mostly smaller economies compared with coastal states, these states will continue growing for at least five more years, energy economists project,...

Peak Oil’s Revenge A slew of events over the past few months have driven the price of oil higher.The ISIS incursion in Iraq has set up the entire Middle East for a multinational civil war. It’s not hard to envision a reign of destruction across the Arab Peninsula to the oil producing regions of Iran.Russia, the world’s largest producer of hydrocarbons, is stirring up nationalism and sending rebel groups into Ukraine.China just sent four jack-up rigs into disputed waters off Vietnam to look for oil.And two days ago, the Obama administration made it legal to export very lightly refined crude...

Must-know: Recent activity and growth in the Permian Basin By Avik Chowdhury - Disclosure • Jun 25, 2014 1:00 pm EDT The Permian Basin and U.S. energy independenceAs we’ve seen, the Permian Basin has been one of the primary drivers of domestic oil growth and has been heralded as one of the pillars to move the U.S. closer to energy independence. The following statistics convey a sense of the recent growth and activity in the region.Recent growthThe chart below shows the growth in oil produced from the Permian Basin over the past few years. Production in the region had bottomed...

The Sylvester family has been able to restore their farm only because they are mineral-rights owners. Royalty payments from the energy companies leasing their property have helped cover the expense — already more than $200,000. Without royalties as a source of income, there would have been “no way,” Sylvester says.

Shale Boom Will Spread Beyond North America Before 2020: IEA By Meagan Clark on June 17 2014 8:45 AM Here's the EIA's latest assessment of where the world's known technically recoverable shale oil and gas deposits are located. The number of countries on the list has nearly doubled since 2011. U.S. Energy Information Administration Share this article   The North American shale boom that has transformed the oil industry here will spread beyond the continent before the end of the decade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday in its annual five-year oil market report.That’s sooner than IEA previously expected....

Anti-fracking forces across the country have tapped into local governments to get them to tap the brakes on fracking, a technological advance that allows energy companies to extract oil and gas from deep rock formations by pressure-pumping them with sand, water and chemicals. Some states allow communities to regulate the energy industry, but some do not, according to Deborah Goldberg, a New York attorney with Earthjustice, a national nonprofit known for using the court system to protect the environment and people’s health. “Local authority varies substantially depending on the state you are in,” Goldberg said in a press briefing Friday....

Apr 8, 2014, 6:20am MDT Updated: Apr 8, 2014, 7:52am MDT Crude oil potential from Colorado's DJ Basin gets bigger (a lot bigger)   Enlarge Photo Comstock Images via Thinkstock .     Cathy ProctorReporter- Denver Business JournalEmail  |  Facebook  |  Twitter The estimated amount of crude oil and other liquids that could be pumped from Colorado’s booming Denver-Julesburg Basin has grown to more than 4 billion barrels.And that’s just using estimates from the two biggest oil and gas companies — Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) — working in the DJ Basin, which...

The World Has 53.3 Years of Oil Left By Matt DiLallo |June 22, 2014 | Photo credit: BP. BP (NYSE: BP  )  has provided an intriguing update to its global oil reserves estimate in the company's latest yearly review of energy statistics. BP raised its reserve estimate by 1.1% to 1,687.9 billion barrels, which is enough oil to last the world 53.3 years at the current production rates. However, there's likely a lot more oil left in the tank beyond what BP sees today. America's energy boom surgesA good portion of the growth in global oil reserves in BP's report comes from the...

North Dakota has joined the big leagues of crude oil production, surpassing 1 million barrels per day — an output second only to Texas in the U.S. State officials said Tuesday that North Dakota yielded 1,001,149 barrels daily in April from a record 10,658 wells. Jubilant oil industry officials hailed the benchmark as another sign that the United States is freeing itself from the grip of foreign oil.