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Lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly are reportedly close to giving final passage to a bill that would allow offshore natural gas drilling, create a compact with neighboring states and set up an state advisory board on energy matters.

General Electric (GE) unveiled an advanced turbine technology that it said will allow greater flexibility and efficiency in combined-cycle natural gas-fired power plants.

As expected, the loss of quite a bit of cooling demand from earlier in the week with almost-negligible replacement by new heating load didn’t allow Wednesday’s overall minor gains to persist. Instead, cash prices fell almost the board Thursday. The June futures drop of 6.5 cents a day earlier was another bearish factor in Thursday’s market.

The Horn River Basin of British Columbia (BC) holds an “ultimate potential” of marketable unconventional natural gas shale of 78 Tcf, which “ranks among the most prospective shale gas basins in North America,” according to a new government energy market assessment.

Details are emerging of how the government of Quebec plans to allow companies to drill for shale gas in the province while it conducts a two-year environmental assessment of the growing industry.

Enterprise Products Partners LP said it plans to build an 80-mile extension of its 350,000 b/d Eagle Ford Shale crude oil pipeline, which would allow the partnership to serve production in the southwestern portion of the play. The Phase II project would originate in Wilson County, TX, at the terminus of the previously announced 140-mile Phase I segment, and extend to near Gardendale, TX, in La Salle County, where a new central delivery point is planned that would feature 500,000 bbl of storage. Phase I is on schedule to begin service by the second quarter of 2012 with Phase II set to commence operations in the first quarter of 2013. When completed, the approximately 220-mile crude oil pipeline system would provide Eagle Ford producers with access to the Texas Gulf Coast refining complex through Enterprise’s network. The Phase II extension, which is being designed with a capacity of 200,000 b/d, is anchored by a 10-year agreement with Chesapeake Energy Marketing Inc., which has committed to 100,000 b/d of firm capacity.

As state regulators weigh its plan to allow customers to opt out of using advanced metering systems for health reasons, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) said Monday it is dealing with a small number of defective smart meters that overcharged about 1,600 electric utility customers throughout its territory. The problem did not arise in the smart natural gas meters the combination utility has installed.

Transco said regarding its April 15 notice indicating that operating conditions at the Transco/FGT Vinton interconnect were not compatible to allow delivery there, the conditions had been resolved and the point became available again Sunday.

Shale gas plays and significant technological advances that allow their development helped drive the latest assessment of U.S. natural gas reserves by the Potential Gas Committee (PGC) to a new high.