This week API is launching a series of hydraulic fracturing workshops in shale energy states to continue the conversation on industry guidelines and standards that will help lead to safe, efficient production of this valuable resource. API President and CEO Jack Gerard:

“These workshops emphasize the importance of our standards and certification programs, demonstrate how states are successfully regulating hydraulic fracturing and examine where we can improve. These are serious issues and the industry is committed to moving forward with responsible development of our nation’s energy from shale.”

API began the dialogue with an inaugural workshop in Pittsburgh attended by nearly 300 energy industry officials from around the country. Panel discussions emphasized the need for excellen... more »

A new academic study says New York's moratorium on shale gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing stands in the way of more than $11 billion in economic output, thousands of new jobs and more than $1 billion in state tax revenues.

Those benefits would accrue by 2020 if last year's ban on fracking/horizontal drilling, according to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research study, released Wednesday. State legislators currently are considering extending the ban, which is scheduled to expire next month.

Primary author Timothy Considine told the Binghamton (N.Y.) Press & Sun-Bulletin the report's estimates are conservative, based on 330 horizontal wells in the Marcellus shale region of southern and western New York. "It could be much larger than the numbers projected in my report," said Consid... more »

Looking for information about hydraulic fracturing? The Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) launched their new joint website today to respond to concerns about the chemicals used in fracturing operations. It's called FracFocus and can be found here.

The website provides information on the makeup of fracturing fluid, the need for chemicals that make the fluid slick and kill corrosion-causing bacteria, and it lists the various names of the chemicals used to coax oil and natural gas from shale rock formations.Website visitors also can obtain a list of the chemicals that have been used at drill sites near their locations.

To clear up misconceptions, the website explains laws that pertain to oil and natural gas field chemical disclos... more »

There's a revolution occurring in the United States, and it is spreading throughout the world. It is the shale gas revolution, and it has the potential to alter the global energy picture for many years to come. It began a few years ago when Texas oil man George Mitchell had a hunch that he could produce natural gas from the Barnett Shale formation in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Although some geologists were skeptical, Mitchell discovered that gas could be produced by using a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. When other energy companies learned of his success, they improved on his innovation and helped to create a new industry and thousands of jobs across the country.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, energy expert Daniel Yergin noted that shale gas accounte... more »

North Dakota celebrated its 60th year of oil production yesterday. On April 4, 1951, Amerada Corp. struck oil in Clarence Iverson's wheat field near Tioga, which eventually led to North Dakota becoming the 4th largest oil producing state in the country.

Over the intervening years, the process of producing oil in North Dakota and elsewhere has advanced markedly. American ingenuity and investments by the oil and natural gas industry have fueled innovations making it possible to find and produce oil and natural gas in rock formations that were deemed too difficult to locate and assess or too dense to drill a few years ago.

With today's oil and natural gas innovations:

• The industry is using steam to melt oil as thick as a hockey puck in underground formations and coax it to the surface.

• It... more »