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Opponents of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Michigan plan to begin collecting signatures for a petition that could ask voters in 2014 whether to allow the drilling stimulation practice to be used in the state.

Forest Oil Corp. has struck an agreement with Schlumberger that the company said will allow it to accelerate development of its Eagle Ford Shale acreage.

A bill that would allow companies to classify as trade secrets chemicals and concentrations used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluids passed the muster of a key committee on Tuesday, and is nearing final passage in the West Virginia Legislature.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has carved out a 94,000-acre tract in Ohio’s Stark and Portage counties to sell, land that represents roughly one-tenth of its leasehold in the Utica/Point Pleasant Shale.

As a formal set of proposed rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) moves through preliminary public review in California, Gov. Jerry Brown last Wednesday expressed confidence that his state’s oil and gas regulators would apply “science and common sense” to frack regulations.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is reviewing an exploration plan by ConocoPhillips that if approved may allow the producer to begin drilling offshore Alaska in the Chukchi Sea in 2014. However, the proposal may be stymied by issues that Interior found in Royal Dutch Shell plc’s inaugural drilling program.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is reviewing an exploration plan by ConocoPhillips that if approved may allow the producer to begin drilling offshore Alaska in the Chukchi Sea in 2014.

The New York State Assembly’s passage of a bill calling for a two-year moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) in the state could divide the fragile bipartisan coalition that controls the Senate.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was reportedly considering a plan to allow 10 to 40 horizontal test wells on a trial basis in the state’s Southern Tier, but changed his mind after discussing high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his former brother-in-law and an avid environmentalist.