Southwestern Energy is an American natural gas and petroleum exploration and production company headquartered in Houston, Texas.
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Current operations
The company's primary exploration and production activities are in the Appalachian Basin and in the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas, where the company controls 918,535 net acres. The company also controls 2,518,519 net undeveloped acres in New Brunswick, Canada. However, because of a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in New Brunswick, these resources cannot be developed.
As of December 31, 2016 the company had 875 million barrels of oil equivalent (5.35×109 GJ) of estimated proved reserves, of which 7% was petroleum and 93% was natural gas.
The company also owns 2,061 miles of pipeline, almost entirely in Arkansas.
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History
The company traces its roots to Arkansas Western Gas Company, which was established in July 1929 as a subsidiary of Southern Union Gas Company of Dallas.
In 1985, the company merged with Mustang Fuel in a $200 million transaction.
Controversies
Public opposition to hydraulic fracturing in New Brunswick, Canada
Shale gas was discovered in New Brunswick, Canada in 2003, but technologies such as hydraulic fracturing made its extraction viable later that decade. In March 2010, Southwestern successfully bid for exclusive licenses from the Department of Natural Resources of New Brunswick to search and conduct an exploration program. In 2010, Corridor Resources, in partnership with Apache Resources, who operated in the McCully Field play, announced that "it found more natural gas in place in southern New Brunswick than is available in all of western Canada's proven reserves." In July 2011, Tom Alexander, Southwestern's general manager for New Brunswick, assured residents that the company was only exploring, not fracking. In July seismic equipment owned by Southwestern was vandalized in an isolated work camp in Cumberland Bay. In August 2011, protests against hydraulic fracturing were held in Fredericton, Sussex, Hampton, Norton and Rexton. Local residents were "concerned that the seismic testing could lead to hydro-fracking in their communities" and that the fracking would "harm their air and water quality." According to Ralph Carr, the mayor of Sussex, New Brunswick, by December 2011, Southwestern and Apache, had "announced their intentions to aggressively search for gas in the deep shale deposits that lay beneath us." Carr argued that controversy about shale gas development in New Brunswick was partially fueled by media attention, when Calgary-based Windsor Energy Inc. conducted seismic testing within the town boundaries, before Sussex town council had given official permission. Carr argued against an outright ban on shale gas production but admitted that, "[m]issteps and mistakes by some companies involved with shale gas production have caused environmental damage and tarnished the image of the industry as a whole." In early August 2011, 40 people from Penniac, Taymouth, Stanley, Rogersville and several First Nations blocked a road north of Stanley, stopping Southwestern Resources Canada trucks used in seismic testing. There was a blockade on New Brunswick Route 134 in Mi'kmaq territory in New Brunswick. On October 3, 2013, the Court of Queen's Bench in New Brunswick granted Southwestern an injunction to end the protests of the Elsipogtog First Nation. However, the protesters were undeterred, and on October 17, they brought matters to a head with a demonstration that blocked the highway and set several police cars on fire. The situation "exploded in violence, sending dozens of people to jail and reducing five police cars to smouldering ruins". The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said "more than 40 protesters were arrested for various offences including firearms offences, uttering threats, intimidation, mischief and for refusing to abide by a court injunction". In 2015, the provincial government in New Brunswick imposed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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