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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.

In the six years spanning 2007 through 2012, total U.S. private sector employment increased by more than one million jobs, or about 1%. However, over the same period, the oil and gas industry — segmented into drilling, extraction and support segments — increased by more than 162,000 jobs, which equates to a 40% increase,” according to a new study from the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Chesapeake Energy Corp. no longer wants to fight the state of New York’s moratorium on unconventional drilling and is allowing leases it holds in the Southern Tier to expire.

Technological innovations in the oil and gas industry have led to some remarkable discoveries over its 150-year history, but even with the plethora of inventions that have boosted U.S. reserves, there’s still plenty to learn, energy stalwarts said last week at the Colorado Oil & Gas Association’s 25th Annual Rocky Mountain Energy Summit.

Two big U.S. independents took too different paths in the second quarter, one showing solid natural gas gains — mostly in the Marcellus Shale — while the other saw climbing oil and liquids output from from its onshore plays, and in particular, the Eagle Ford Shale.

Backlog for capital equipment orders in National Oilwell Varco’s (NOV) rig technology segment was $13.95 billion at the end of 2Q2013, a record high, 8% higher than at the end of 1Q2013 and 24% higher than at the end of 2Q2012, the company said.

A study of Barnett Shale region water wells has found elevated levels of heavy metals near natural gas extraction sites, but a link to drilling/production activity has not been determined and may not be, researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) said.

FERC last Tuesday approved a stipulation and consent agreement ordering JP Morgan Ventures Energy Corp. (JPMVEC) to pay $410 million in penalties and disgorge profits for allegedly manipulating power markets in California and the Midwest.