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The cause of an apparent “well control incident” at a Chesapeake Energy Corp. natural gas drilling site in Wyoming was under investigation Wednesday, and the producer was preparing resources and equipment to get it under control. No injuries were reported.

Williams, which has been laser focused on building a midstream stronghold in the Marcellus Shale, last week added to its arsenal after agreeing to pay $2.5 billion to buy the midstream arm of privately held producer Caiman Energy.

A joint health assessment in a Colorado oil and natural gas field has concluded that air pollution-spurred health concerns have to be added to the environmental precautions surrounding well development and, more specifically, hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

What a difference a year makes. When President Obama directed Energy Secretary Steven Chu last March to establish a subcommittee to assess the environmental impacts of shale gas drilling, industry interpreted this as bad news. But Tuesday members of the subcommittee touted the industry and criticized detractors of both hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and shale gas development.

Being in the middle is not so much a challenge as an opportunity for DCP Midstream LLC, the Denver-based infrastructure and natural gas liquids (NGL) operator that has an eye on moving into the Bakken, Utica and Marcellus shale plays, according to DCP President Bill Waldheim. He told NGIShale Daily that those are about the only shale plays that fall outside DCP’s reach these days.

Inspectors with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) returned to the site of a condensate leak in Washington County on Tuesday to take soil and water samples near a natural gas well owned by a Chevron Corp. subsidiary.

The intent of continued research by the Department of Energy (DOE) into hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is “can we help drive the technology development forward,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate committee Thursday.

Added gas processing capacity bringing the state’s total to 1 Bcf/d is expected to cut volumes being flared significantly. Currently 34% of North Dakota’s average daily gas production is being flared, but that is slated to change a lot over the course of 2012, according to Industrial Commission spokesperson Alison Ritter.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. and GSI Environmental Inc. are questioning a Duke University study that found a link between hydraulic fracturing and increased cases of gas migration in northeastern Pennsylvania.