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Damning New Evidence Raises Concerns About Threats to New York's Water From Gas Drilling
Byard Duncan, AlterNet
Shortly after Laurie Lytle and her husband purchased a home near Geneva, NY in September 2006, they noticed a yellow flier tucked in their door frame. Chesapeake Energy, one of the nation's largest developers of natural gas, had come knocking, wondering if the Lytles were interested in leasing their land for exploration. "Sign with Chesapeake Energy," Lytle recalled the flier saying: "We can give you money for not doing much."

Lytle threw it out. When she found an identical flier in the same spot a few days later, she threw that one out, too.

It wasn't long before Chesapeake ditched the paper and sent a representative to the Lytles' home -- a guy named Ivan. The amount of money he was willing to pay increased every time the couple voiced their doubts about drilling -- every time they told him his sum was "a joke." First it was $289 for the lease. Then it was more. Then more. At the end of three weeks' negotiations, Chesapeake had upped its offer to approximately $4,000, Lytle said.

"They really were pushing to get the deal done," she told me. "They really wanted us to sign."

The Lytles did eventually sign, on Feb. 7, 2007, with one contractual addendum: Were they to experience any problems with their drinking water, the responsibility would fall on Chesapeake to cover the damage. The company agreed, and for months no drilling took place. Then October came, cloudy and cold. Chesapeake finally began exploration, employing a technique called hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking for short), which involves shooting millions of gallons of water and chemicals deep underground to break up rock formations and release natural gas. Just one day after the drilling started, Lytle noticed that something had gone wrong with her water quality...
(11 Dec 2009)

Filmmaker felt "Haynesville" energy
Tom Fowler, Houston Chronicle
Gregory Kallenberg was sitting in a Shreveport diner early last year the first time he heard about the massive Haynesville natural gas find from a fellow patron.

“It was like the crazy miner who comes in from the hills saying he has found gold,” said Kallenberg, a former newspaper reporter and cable television writer turned documentary filmmaker. But what he thought would be a film about the people in the middle of a mad rush for drilling rights ended up being something bigger, a story about the nation’s energy future.

Kallenberg took a few minutes from preparing for a screening of the movie at the Copenhagen climate change conference this week to speak with Chronicle reporter Tom Fowler by phone about his film Haynesville.

Q: What’s your elevator-pitch description of the movie?

A: Haynesville follows the momentous discovery of what is looking like it will be the largest natural gas field in the country. The film itself looks at the discovery from the perspective of three people’s lives and how they’re affected by the find. One is a single mom fighting for her community’s land rights. One is an African-American preacher who’s trying to use the proceeds from the Haynesville to build a Christian school. And the other is a self-described good ol’ boy who becomes an overnight millionaire. The other part that’s woven in between these personal stories is what this vast amount of energy means. What does it mean when you find 170 TCF of natural gas? How does that impact the national energy picture and eventually the energy future?...
(12 Dec 2009)
You can find out more about the movie here

New breed strikes lucky at Iraq oil auction
Carola Hoyas, Financial Times
International oil companies were the big winners at Iraq’s latest oil auction that ended at the weekend, but national oil companies showed for the first time en masse they could garner big contracts outside their traditional regions.

China’s CNPC, Malaysia’s Petronas, Angola’s Sonangol, Gazprom, Russia’s state gas company, and Statoil of Norway, all won contracts in Iraq.

Several deals will have those companies developing some of the world’s biggest fields. Involvement in Iraq could transform the companies, boosting their overseas production volumes. It could also provide important lessons in completing large projects in a country they barely know, where insurgency and political upheaval remain serious concerns.

Iraq’s oilfields are relatively easy and cheap to develop and national oil companies are often less risk averse than their bigger competitors, one senior oil executive said, adding: “Ten years ago those companies would not have been international. Iraq is cheap and easy to do and they have the money”.

Most of the national oil companies that won licences in Iraq have international operations – Statoil in particular is seen as being on a par with international oil companies in terms of technical and managerial sophistication – but all the companies are majority state-owned and are better known for their work at home than abroad...
(13 Dec 2009)

Big Oil Seen in ‘Race to the Altar’ After Exxon Deal (Update1)
Jessica Resnick-Ault, Bloomberg.com
Exxon Mobil Corp.’s $30 billion purchase of XTO Energy Inc., the largest U.S. petroleum takeover since 2006, may signal a wave of acquisitions as major producers seek to tap growing gas and oil output from shale formations.

Irving, Texas-based Exxon announced its deal yesterday, saying it plans to make XTO, the largest natural-gas producer in the U.S., the centerpiece of its global expansion in shale developments. XTO is among companies that drove a surge in U.S. fuel output by exploiting so-called shale plays, where rock formations are fractured with water and sand to make gas flow.

Exxon’s stamp of approval on shale plays may be a watershed, encouraging companies that have already made investments in the segment to expand their positions, said Ryan Cournoyer, head of energy trading at Lighthouse Financial Group LLC in New York. The largest U.S. energy company also will help stabilize gas prices, making it easier for buyers and sellers to come together on acquisition values, he said.

“Exxon Mobil acquiring XTO is going to put a floor on natural-gas prices longer term,” Cournoyer said. “These guys are finally coming out and acknowledging that they need to grow their reserves longer term.”..
(15 Dec 2009)