drilling news stories on Newser

Fracking Quakes Could Be Avoided ... for $10M Per Well

Kevin Spak — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:54:17 CST

Scientists say there's a simple way to minimize the risk that the natural gas extraction technique known as "fracking" will cause earthquakes—like the one that hit Ohio on New Year's . But there’s a catch: It costs $10 million per injection well, a price the energy industry isn’t likely to...

Texas 1st to Pass Fracking Law

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:38:22 CDT

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has signed a bill requiring drillers to publicly disclose the chemicals they use when extracting oil and gas from dense rock formations, the first state to pass such a law. Several other state agencies have passed regulations forcing some disclosure, but none have made it a...

Halliburton More Than Doubles Its Profits in Q1

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 08:07:26 CDT

Despite challenges arising from political unrest in the Arab world, Halliburton's net income has more than doubled during the first quarter of 2011. The oil-field services company credits the soaring earnings to an increase in unconventional North American oil and natural-gas drilling; the AP reports that North American revenue jumped...

Hydrofracking's Ugly Secret: From Gas Wells, Bad Water

Mark Russell — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 07:01:10 CST

It's called "hydrofracking"—injecting huge amounts of water, sand, and chemicals underground to break up rock formations and release natural gas—and it has an ugly secret. The technology allows energy companies to wring out small pockets of natural gas all across America—the number of gas wells has doubled...

BP Well Almost Blew Up Months Earlier

Kevin Spak — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:51:00 CDT

BP knew its Macondo well was in trouble long before it exploded—because it was dealing with cracks in its seal way back in February. The company spent 10 days trying to seal up the holes, experiencing repeated difficulties that suggest it was using the wrong kind of cement. Cracks...

Shell Gets Go Ahead for Arctic Drilling

Emily Rauhala — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:50:58 CDT

Shell got the go ahead to ' drill, baby, drill ' in the Arctic this summer, after a three-judge panel rejected a legal challenge standing in the way of their plans. The court determined that the federal Minerals Management Service ( Um, remember them? ) weighed the potential threat to...

Drill, Baby, Drill!: Palin

Nick McMaster — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:15:30 CDT

Even as the US develops renewable-energy sources and cars that don’t need gas, it’s important to recognize that petroleum will be a part of our lives for some time, writes Sarah Palin. And as long as we need it, we should be getting as much as possible from our own...

US Frontier Mythology Is Alive and Dangerous

Jason Farago — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:33:40 CDT

Sarah Palin took to the national stage in August 2008, and two weeks later Lehman Brothers collapsed. That's a helpful metaphor, writes Naomi Klein in the Guardian , who sees the former Alaska governor as "the last clear expression of capitalism-as-usual before everything went south." The financial crisis should have voided...

Congress Mulls Tighter Offshore Drilling Rules

Matt Cantor — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:27:04 CDT

A bill pushed by Dick Cheney 4 years ago freed natural-gas drillers from clean-water laws, but pollution concerns are driving congressional Democrats to rethink the matter, ProPublica reports. They’ve drafted legislation that would end the natural-gas exemption and require drillers to reveal the chemicals they use in their work, some...