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With new liquids-rich properties in pocket, Linn Energy LLC said Monday it plans to spend $880 million in capital expenditures (capex) in 2012, with more than half allocated to the unconventional Granite Wash formation in Texas.

The head of a major Pennsylvania water utility sees a two-fer in convincing Marcellus Shale operators to replace trucks with pipelines for fracking.

Rex Energy Corp. said results from its first test well into the Upper Devonian/Burkett Shale just north of Pittsburgh are encouraging enough to justify additional wells into the formation directly above the Marcellus Shale in the coming year.

Devon Energy Corp.’s exit from the Gulf of Mexico last year and the recent sale of its Brazilian assets in order to focus on North American onshore drilling have begun to pay significant dividends for the Oklahoma City-based independent, including record high North American onshore production, CEO John Richels said Wednesday.

The ongoing expansion of Atlas Pipeline Partners LP’s (APL) Velma system and similar projects on the partnership’s other systems must be completed before it can take on all of the production coming its way, APL said Tuesday.

The Sierra Club alleges in a letter to the National Park Service (NPS) that Pennsylvania is violating federal law by allowing natural gas drilling on protected state park and forest land.

The pace of development in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas is fast and steady, yet “the [stock] market continues to not appreciate the statistical and predictable nature of the learning curve” in the play, said analysts at FBR Capital Markets. They noted that in other shale plays, more wells have equaled greater knowledge, which has yielded predictable productivity gains.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has overstepped its jurisdiction in Pennsylvania and should leave regulation of oil and gas to state officials, according to some members of Congress.

Domestic shale gas will increasingly be developed by the majors, an energy industry financier told an audience in Pittsburgh on Monday.