UGI Corp. subsidiary UGI Energy Services LLC has placed its newly-constructed 28-mile gathering pipeline and compressor station into full service. The Auburn pipeline extension provides gas supplies to local consumers in Pennsylvania, while also providing access to interstate markets for Marcellus Shale producers. The $160 million, 20-inch pipeline will initially deliver 200 MMcf/d of locally produced natural gas through UGI Energy’s Manning compressor station in Wyoming County, PA. to UGI Penn Natural Gas Inc., one of that company’s utilities and the interstate pipeline Transcontinental.

The Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber says shale gas development in Ohio’s Utica Shale play has created 4,000 direct and indirect jobs and generated $5 billion in investments for the Mahoning Valley, a three-county region in Northeast Ohio. The Chamber said it counted 25 job creation and investment projects related to the oil and gas industry since 2010, beginning with the global manufacturing giant Vallourec Star’s announcement to build a $1 billion seamless pipe plant in Youngstown. Ten companies have also announced supply chain expansions, five significant pipeline and processing plant projects have been announced in the Valley and four major investments from exploration and production companies have been made in the area, according to the chamber.

Continuing it’s transformation into a pure-play oil and natural gas exploration and production company, Hess Corp. has filed a Form 10 Registration Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the formation of Hess Retail Corp., a subsidiary containing convenience stores and gasoline refueling stations that the New York-based energy company said it will then seek to sell. Hess said it has received a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service that will allow it to distribute the business to stockholders in a tax-free spin-off. Hess shareholders would receive one share in the retail company for each Hess share held, according to the filing.

The Oneok Inc. board of directors on Wednesday unanimously approved the separation of the company’s natural gas distribution business into a stand-alone, publicly traded company to be called ONE Gas Inc. Oneok will continue to hold its interests in Oneok Partners LP, which include the sole general partner and limited partner interests that together represent 41.2% of the outstanding partnership interests, as of Dec. 31. ONE Gas will consist of Kansas Gas Service, Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. and Texas Gas Service, and will be headquartered in Tulsa, OK. It will be one of the largest natural gas utilities in the United States, serving more than 2 million customers in three states, and it will be a 100% regulated, publicly traded natural gas utility.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday one of the “key parts” of its 2014 strategy is to “advance and protect America’s energy revolution” through the production of more domestic energy, the improvement of infrastructure and the modernization of the government’s regulatory process. In his annual State of the American Business address Wednesday, CEO Thomas J. Donohue said the Chamber in 2014 “will focus its tools, talent, capacities and resources to advance a jobs, growth and opportunity agenda that we believe will benefit all Americans.” Next Wednesday, the Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy will unveil its new “Energy Works for US” initiative, which it says contains more than 60 recommendations to help the United States seize its energy potential and unleash the benefits across the country’s entire economy. The plan includes ideas to expand trade, produce more domestic energy and improve infrastructure, which together “would create millions of good-paying jobs.” He added that the Chamber will push for government reform to modernize a regulatory process “that hasn’t been updated since Harry Truman was president.”