Après l'explosion d'un puits, EOG consolide

Photo: Fox News

Bien que la compagnie de gaz naturel EOG Resources Inc. nous assure que la vente de débarras de 180,000 acres qu'elle loue pour l'exploitation au Texas, en Louisiane et en Pennsylvanie n'a rien à voir avec l'explosion du puits en Pennsylvanie le 3 juin 2010 (voir mon blog du 9 juin "Forage pour le gaz naturel arrêté en toute urgence" ici: http://lesamisdurichelieu.blogspot.com/2010/06/forage-pour-gaz-naturel-arrete-en-toute.html), on a tout le moins le droit de se poser des questions.

Suite au désastre du 3 juin, la compagnie a dû payer une amende de $400,000 pour avoir projeté du gaz et des eaux usées dans les airs pendant 16 heures avant de maîtriser le puits récalcitrant. Mais le chef de la direction nous assure que la consolidation de ses avoirs lui permettra de réduire certaines dettes.

L'article du quotidien nous assure bien sérieusement que cela n'a rien à voir avec le puits de gaz naturel qui a explosé le 3 juin!

Mais l'article est intéressant aussi dans le sens qu'il nous instruit que certaines compagnies se tournent plutôt aux puits qui fournissent du pétrole et du gaz sous forme liquide, car le prix et le rendement financier pour ces ressources est plus élevé que pour le gaz naturel sous forme de gaz.

L'article spécifie aussi que la formation Marcellus dans le nord de la Pennsylvanie contient du gaz naturel "sec" qui contient peu de combustibles fossiles sous forme liquide, comme le butane et le propane, qui ont besoin d'être séparés avant que le gaz puisse être acheminé par gazoduc aux compagnies de distributions.

Il ne faut pas manquer de lire le rapport du Pennsylvania Land Trust Association! Le lien pour télécharger le pdf de 3 pages est sur leur site ici: http://conserveland.org/violationsrpt . Quand on voit le nombre d'infractions aux nombreuses compagnies de forage et de gazières sur une durée de 2,5 années seulement en Pennsylvanie, çà donne froid dans le dos! Il faut ajouter aussi les infractions de la route des camions-citernes employés par celles-ci!
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"EOG selling nearly a quarter of its Marcellus acres

EOG Resources Inc ., the natural gas company that state environmental officials rebuked last month over a runaway well in Clearfield County, is unloading nearly a quarter of its Marcellus Shale acreage in Pennsylvania. The Houston company disclosed to investors Friday that it has put 180,000 acres of oil and gas acreage in Texas , Louisiana, and Pennsylvania up for sale. The offering includes 51,000 acres in Bradford County, the most active area in northern Pennsylvania for Marcellus drilling.

Mark G. Papa, EOG's chairman and chief executive, said the company had spent $1.7 billion in recent years leasing the drilling rights in several prime shale-gas formations and had accumulated more acreage than it could manage. "So we're going to monetize a bit of this acreage" by selling those leases, he said. He said the proceeds would be used to reduce debt.

After several years of frenzied leasing activity, Marcellus operators are consolidating their holdings - accumulating contiguous acreage, selling or swapping some leases with other operators, or forming partnerships, sometimes with big international investors. EOG had considered forming a joint venture to operate its excess acreage, Papa said, "but instead decided on an outright sale because it's cleaner and less complicated."

The sale is unrelated to EOG's regulatory dustup with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection over a June 3 blowout of a well in Clearfield County. DEP fined EOG and a drilling company $400,000 over the incident, when a well spewed gas and wastewater for 16 hours before it was brought under control. The Clearfield County incident merited only a footnote in the company's quarterly earnings filing, which was posted Friday and reported $1.4 billion in revenue for three months and $60 million in profits. EOG has resumed normal operations in Pennsylvania after arriving at an agreement with the DEP.

Several exploration companies, including EOG and Chesapeake Energy Corp., say they are shifting more of their resources to drilling in formations that yield oil or natural gas liquids, which now fetch substantially higher prices than natural gas.

The Marcellus acreage in northern Pennsylvania produces "dry" natural gas that contains few liquid fuels, such as butane and propane, which need to separated before the gas is piped to distribution companies. Natural gas is used primarily for electrical power generation and home heating."

Excerpts from article written by Andrew Maykuth published here: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20100807_EOG_selling_nearly_a_quarter_of_its_Marcellus_acres.html

It's not easy to get the information we need to prepare for the natural gas drilling forecasted for the Saint-Lawrence Valley, but if I read enough newspaper articles, I can piece together some quite interesting data that gas companies and our government don't fork over easely.