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The Texas Senate has passed HB 2767, which is intended to encourage the recycling of wastewater from drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations for reuse rather than injection of the waste into disposal wells. The legislation aims to clear up legal ambiguities around responsibility for transferred drilling waste.

In an attempt to lure foreign investment back to its shale natural gas plays following several high profile defections, the country’s finance minister said a severance tax on unconventional production will take effect in 2015 but no tax would be levied until 2020.

Quicksilver Resources Inc. is continuing to “hammer on the cost side” of its business, deferring elective spending in the energy patch and cutting back on staff. A recently announced joint venture (JV) in the Barnett Shale with Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd. was welcome news (see NGI, April 8), but there is more work ahead. “We are focused on the most important projects and we’re bringing in partners to both reduce debt and assist in the development of our assets,” said CEO Glenn Darden. “The company is very serious about reducing costs and living within cash flows.” Over the last year, the employee count has come down by about 20%. The Fort Worth, TX-based operator reported an adjusted net loss of $6 million (minus 4 cents/share) compared with a loss in 1Q2012 of $15 million (minus 9 cents). Since it was able to complete a long-sought Barnett Shale deal and in light of “challenging” natural gas liquids pricing, the company has shelved plans to create a Barnett master limited partnership (see NGI, Nov. 12, 2012).

Scaling back from original plans for a shift to more natural gas-fired generation, Nevada’s major utility, NV Energy, has submitted to state lawmakers a plan for dumping coal-fired generation, but so far the plan has stirred a political fight.

In an article Tuesday, the Post looked to the future with a report, “European industry flocks to U.S. to take advantage of cheaper gas,” while the Times complained Monday that the “Jobs Boom Built on Cheap Energy Has Yet to Appear.”

Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. is cutting jobs and scaling back operations in its Trinidad, CO, operating area, a dry natural gas play in the Raton Basin. The company said low gas prices were the culprit.

Encana Corp. is cutting back its capital expenditures (capex) and shifting more resources to oil and liquids, but the gassy Haynesville Shale remains on the development list, a top executive said Thursday.

The Marcellus Shale, among other regions, could see persistent ethane rejection until the market comes back into balance, according to analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc.

Enbridge Energy Partners LP’s North Dakota crude oil pipeline system has been underutilized since November due to increasing competition from rail and other pipeline transport options, refiner Flint Hills Resources LP, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., told FERC in a filing.