Posts Tagged ‘Coalbed Methane’

Conservationists Ask Christy Clark to Ban Coalbed Methane Drilling in BC’s Sacred Headwaters, Once and For All

With moratorium set to expire in one year, the Sacred Headwaters offer a potential political win for BC’s Premier – or a potential PR nightmare for gas development.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Dec 05, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — There is one year remaining on the B.C. government’s moratorium on coalbed methane drilling in the Sacred Headwaters, and conservation groups ForestEthics and the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition are calling on Christy Clark to institute a permanent ban on drilling in the area.

The request comes as the groups are ramping up their campaign against Shell and the B.C. government, to protect the Sacred Headwaters. A lump of coal and giant greeting card were delivered this morning to Royal Dutch CEO, Peter Voser, at his office in the Hague, Netherlands, issuing a one year ultimatum for Shell to abandon its plans to drill in the headwaters, and reminding the company that 60,000 people have signed a petition opposing its plans. read more

* Push against paying service firms for low-margin work

* Oil service profit margins rising again with oil prices

HOUSTON, July 21 (Reuters) – An executive at Royal Dutch Shell Plc sees a new Chinese partnership as an opportunity to avoid paying oilfield service companies for drilling they could do just as effectively themselves.

The venture with state-owned China National Petroleum Corp will build systems to automate repetitive drilling, with a goal of having them in the field by 2013, said Peter Sharpe, executive vice president, wells, at Shell Global Solutions International BV.

While Shell expects it will need traditional services in most instances, drilling in coalbed methane and heavy oil fields is relatively simple and can often be automated, he said. read more

Analysts expect the consortiums to consolidate into two groupings and believe Santos/Petronas and BG are well positioned. Origin/Conoco has yet to secure a foundation customer, while the Shell/Arrow team have the smallest reserves.

Rumours have recently been circulating in Australia that either BG or Shell might make a bid for Santos, another company with interests in Queensland’s coal bed methane with a market capitalisation of about A$10bn.

BG Group PLC, the British oil and gas company, and Royal Dutch Shell PLC's Australian partner Arrow Energy Ltd. are competing for Pure Energy Resources Ltd., an Australian player in coalbed methane.

Shell Canada abandoned that project in the face of growing dissent from local First Nations and locals. On Friday, Neufeld announced that Shell Canada and the Tahltan First Nation have reached a two-year moratorium on coalbed methane drilling in the Klappan area.

VANCOUVER - British Columbians ratcheted up their opposition to a proposed Shell Canada Ltd. coal-bed methane project yesterday as a group of mayors unanimously approved a resolution demanding Premier Gordon Campbell halt the company's drilling.

Shell has decided to suspend its planned exploration of coalbed methane in the Klappan this fall to keep communication lines open with interested parties in the area.

Shell Canada has suspended plans for exploratory drilling for coalbed methane in the Klappan region of the Northwest for the rest of 2008.