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Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP (PVR) said late Monday it would be able to increase its natural gas processing capabilities in western Oklahoma after acquiring processing and residue pipeline facilities from Atlas Pipeline Partners LP (APL) for $22.6 million in cash.

Fueled by massive supplies of Arctic natural gas, Russia’s OAO Gazprom may be able to supply up to 10% of the North American liquefied natural gas (LNG) market by 2020, an executive said last week. The comments appeared to confirm some made last month by a Houston-based Gazprom executive.

Fueled by massive supplies of Arctic natural gas, Russia’s OAO Gazprom may be able to supply up to 10% of the North American liquefied natural gas (LNG) market by 2020, an executive told reporters Tuesday. The comments appeared to confirm some made last month by a Houston-based Gazprom executive.

The Midcontinent and much of the West were able to record substantive gains on Monday, but most points in the East were less than a dime either up or down from flat. The source of the overall price strength remained about as elusive as it had in much of the past two weeks. The post-weekend restoration of industrial load was positive, but weather-based demand was still missing in action for the most part, and the previous Friday’s 19.4-cent dip by June natural gas futures certainly didn’t contribute any strength to the cash market.

Though forecasts of seasonal springtime temperatures remain the norm for most areas, the cash market was able to find enough traction in weather-based demand to rise at all points Wednesday. It also derived support from the run-up of 6.8 cents in Tuesday’s expiration-day trading of May futures.

Natural gas shale has forever changed the energy market in North America, and the amount producers are able to pull from the rock eventually will create a practical alternative to other forms of energy, including crude oil and coal, Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon said last Wednesday.

Natural gas shale has forever changed the energy market in North America, and the amount producers are able to pull from the rock eventually will create a practical alternative to other forms of energy, including crude oil and coal, Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon said Wednesday.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has “plenty of liquidity” and will be able to weather the economic storm by neutralizing capital expenditures (capex) over the next two years, CEO Aubrey McClendon told investors Monday. Even with flat spending, the Oklahoma City-based natural gas driller expects to achieve 5-10% production growth in 2009 and 10-15% gains in 2010.

U.S. natural gas production is on track to grow at least 3.6% in 2008 versus a year ago, and producers won’t be able to lay down rigs fast enough to offset the unprecedented growth, thus facing a “high possibility” of forced shut-ins and regional basis blowouts next summer, Raymond James & Associates Inc. reported last week.