Barnett Shale

Chesapeake puts the brakes on plans for a compressor station

This just in from Chesapeake Energy, whose pipeline division was asking for a zoning variance to put a compressor station at Cooks Lane and Interstate 30:

"The application for the Cooks Lane compressor station will be withdrawn prior to the Board of Adjustments meeting on Wednesday, February 4. Texas Midstream Gas Services (TMGS) is still completing negotiations with those located closest to the side and will decide at a later date if this application will be resubmitted to the City of Fort Worth. In the near future, TMGS will still need an additional compressor site in this area of the Barnett Shale to maximize production for royalty owners in east Fort Worth and the surrounding suburbs. Regarding future development at this property, Chesapeake is focused on long-term value at any property that it owns. It is in Chesapeake's interest to find the best and highest use for these 24 acres."

Residents are still skeptical. Watch the Star-Telegram for details.

COOKS LANE MAP

-- Mike Lee

EPA sued over lack of oil and gas regulations

A Colorado environmental group sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month, asking a judge to force the EPA to tighten regulations on the oil and gas industry.

(Read the suit here)

Ed Ireland, with the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council, thinks there will be a trend toward more environmental regulation under the Obama administration. The suit comes a few months after a bill that would impose rules on hydraulic fracturing. He's worried about driving up the cost of production.

Loyal readers will recall that, at a City Council hearing in October, there was a lot of discussion about low-cost ways reduce pollution from drilling.

What do y'all think? 

-- Mike Lee

East Texas residents win case against compressor station

A group of residents in Lamar County, outside Paris, won a long-running lawsuit against a natural gas compressor station, according to The Paris News. The residents complained about noise and odors from the compressor station, and the case included testimony about lax enforcement by the Texas Railroad Commission.

Paris News pipeline story

 -- Mike Lee

UTA wells paying off

The University of Texas at Arlington is the beneficiary of unusually strong production from six natural gas wells on its campus. The school said Monday it received a check for $528,495 from Carrizo Oil & Gas, its first royalty payment from production that started Nov. 4. The school said about 40 percent of the money will go toward undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships, with the rest to endowed faculty positions and campus improvements. Other property owners receiving royalty payments from the wells’ production include the city of Arlington, First Baptist Church of Arlington and the state of Texas. Carrizo said it issued a total of more than $675,000 in royalty checks just for November production.

For a complete report, see Tuesday's Star-Telegram.

--Jim Fuquay

Biding their time

The City Council is likely to toss out the bids for natural gas leases on three tracts of city property because the bonuses that the city was offered were too low.

The bids were for a water pump station on Alta Mesa Boulevard, a police station on Nashville and Rosedale Plaza park. The city only got an offer from one company -- Chesapeake Energy -- on each tract. Chesapeake offered a bonus of 2,500 an acre for the park and the pump station, which total about 35 acres, and $10,000 an acre for the 2.4-acre police station. Chesapeake offered 25 percent royalties on all three tracts.

"We will selectively lease property when it makes sense and we believe we can get a fair offer," Planning and Development Director Susan Alanis said via e-mail. "In some cases we will wait to lease when the market recovers."

This is going to be an important issue to watch. Fort Worth has about 12,000 acres of parks, airports, water plants and other city buildings. The city expects to earn a little more than $1 billion over 20 years from bonuses and royalties. But a lot of observers say the city will have to be disciplined and avoid leasing during downturns in the oil and gas business.

-- Mike Lee

Thanks God it doesn't snow here . . .

A new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that high levels of ozone can form in natural gas fields in the dead of winter.

Now, anyone who's found themselves wheezing on a hot day knows that ozone typically forms when the sun starts to work on our air pollution and creates a chemical reaction. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has been under orders from the EPA to clean up its air for almost a decade. In the last year or so, researchers have started exploring the effects of natural gas production on our air pollution and disussing ways to reduce the impact.

But researchers found high levels of ozone in Wyoming when the gas and chemical fumes  released around wells can got caught in a temperature inversion. The sun reflecting off the snow created enough heat to turn the pollution into ozone.

Here's the NOAA news release NOAA news release and a story from the Rocky Mountain News:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/19/winter-ozone-levels-a-concern/

 

 -- Mike Lee

A look at the master plan

Click here for a rough Google map of the master drilling plan Chesapeake Energy has proposed for near-south Fort Worth.

Chesapeake VP Julie Wilson said the whole thing is contingent on getting city approval for the new well sites. The Santa Fe site, at Seminary and Lubbock, will be within 600 feet of about 15 houses. And the plan requires a pipeline that will cut through residential areas from the Santa Fe site to the new Seminary well.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=110921857299426390137.000460a02dc1110b1613a&ll=32.706278,-97.355518&spn=0.061967,0.109863&z=13

The big rectangle that lies between Hemphill and Forest Park represents the neighborhoods that signed a deal with XTO -- Berkeley Place, Mistletoe Heights, Ryan Place and Fairmount. Note how the Chesapeake plan puts it in a strategic position to drill beneath those neighborhoods.

 

-- Mike

TCU well site is off the table, as well as pipeline through Westcliff

 Councilman Joel Burns announced Friday that the well site at TCU would not be drilled, which means in turn that the pipeline through the nearby Westcliff neighborhood is no longer necessary.

Here's Burns' news release:

In recent months Chesapeake Energy and Texas Christian University
considered a gas drilling plan that would put a well on the TCU
campus. Because such a site would be considered high impact to more
than 40 homes, I asked the two parties to come back with an alternate
proposal that would include a more comprehensive strategic approach to
accessing the natural gas under TCU and the surrounding communities.

I am pleased to report that Chesapeake has developed a plan, the
result of which would be no gas well site on the university's campus.
Instead the TCU minerals would be accessed by two alternate wells
south of Granbury Road in industrial areas. One of these sites is an
existing well pad at Thornton Steel.

Additionally, Chesapeake's proposal includes a comprehensive plan for
their operations in near southwest Fort Worth (generally inside Loop
820) that uses three existing pad sites along with four additional
proposed well locations that council would most likely consider in the
spring. There will no longer be a need for a gathering pipeline
through Westcliff and adjoining neighborhoods.

I applaud both Chesapeake and TCU for heeding our request and removing
the TCU site from their plans. This is a great example for how a
comprehensive approach to gas drilling can work throughout our city.

By the way, if that idea of a master plan sounds familiar, you read it here first:

The other side of the Barnett Shale: It’s time to care Neighborhoods

You might have also noticed a response, saying that a master plan was unworkable:

One size doesn’t fit all in the world of drilling

-- Mike Lee

Another delay for the TCU pipeline

The City Council will delay a vote on a pipeline through the neighborhood south of Texas Christian University until March, City Manager Dale Fisseler announced.

Chesapeake Energy's pipeline subsidiary has been buying right-of-way for the line along Alton Road, South Hills Avenue and other streets. Two houses in the neighborhood have been demolished to make way for the line. The company still needs permission to cross city streets before it can build the line.

The pipeline would serve a well on the TCU campus, but Chesapeake hasn't gotten a permit from the city for the drill site.

-- Mike Lee

Battle over pipeline bills begins in the Leg.

Check out tomorrow's paper for a story on the different bills aimed at fixing state eminent domain laws, particularly when it comes to pipelines in the Barnett Shale.

Here's a copy of the main bill, by Rep. Bill Orr of Burleson:

Download Eminent domain 81(R) HB 4 - Introduced version - Bill Text

And a counter-proposal, which hasn't been filed yet, from the Texas Pipeline Association:

TPA Proposal

-- Mike Lee