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Physical natural gas trading at most points for the week ended Aug. 16 was limited to gains of less than a nickel. Only a handful of points drifted into the loss column, and the biggest gains were limited to the Northeast. Locations in the transportation and infrastructure-challenged Marcellus scored nearly $1 gains, with gas at Transco-Leidy Line rising 86 cents to $2.43 and deliveries on Tennessee Zone 4 Marcellus jumping 86 cents as well to $2.30. Regionally the Northeast led the pack with an advance of 23 cents to $3.19.

Two weeks after raising its U.S. natural gas price deck due to slightly better fundamentals, analysts with Fitch Ratings on Wednesday made the bold statement that they expect natural gas prices to be rangebound over the “next few years.”

The elephant named Marcellus that has been sitting on Northeast-Henry Hub basis isn’t about to move along, and what used to be a premium market will see trades discounted to the U.S. gas benchmark for a while, analysts at Credit Suisse said in a note Tuesday.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co.(Pioneer) andPioneer Southwest Energy Partners LP(Pioneer Southwest) have struck an agreement for their previously announced merger under which Pioneer Southwest would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Pioneer operating companyPioneer Natural Resources USA Inc.(seeShale Daily,May 13). The transaction is intended to consolidate the West Texas Midland Basin activities of the two companies and facilitate Pioneer’s plans to fully and optimally develop the area utilizing horizontal drilling. The combination is expected to provide organizational, operational and administrative efficiencies, Pioneer said. Pioneer Southwest’s public unitholders are to receive 0.2325 of a share of common stock of Pioneer per Pioneer Southwest common unit surrendered, plus a whole share of Pioneer common stock in lieu of any fractional share of Pioneer common stock otherwise issuable in the merger. The transaction is expected to result in 3.95 million additional shares of common stock being issued by Pioneer.

The Heinz Endowments — a Pittsburgh-based philanthropic organization that has given millions to both supporters and opponents of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) — has caused a stir with its abrupt dismissal of its environmental program director, and indications it will be going in new directions.

Producers reporting their operations results in 2Q2013 over the past week indicate no let-up in the work to be done, with liquids/oil growth from the Eagle Ford funding forays into the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS).

Thirteen days after Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed a controversial drilling bill into law, the debate over how it will affect Marcellus Shale development has taken a new turn after EQT Corp. filed a lawsuit against 69 landowners and a golf course in Allegheny County, PA.

Smack dab in the middle of the country to the Texas coast, unconventional producers have reported strengthening oil and natural gas output between April and June, with strong contributions from the Permian Basin along with the Fayetteville and Woodford and liquids growth in the Barnett shales.

Just days after a seventh justice was sworn in to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the Public Utility Commission (PUC) submitted a request that the high court reconsider its decision to quash an appeal by the commission regarding enforcement of Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law.