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An upheaval in investment and operational strategies is roiling the energy industry, in large part because of unconventional natural gas and oil resources, and it’s not all about supply and demand, ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said last week.

Crude oil shipments on all U.S. railroads could hit 700,000 b/d by the end of this year, up 40% from current levels, and top 1 million b/d in 18 months, said BNSF Railway Co. CEO Matthew Rose.

A joint venture (JV) of Battelle and Winner Global LLC expects to begin building its first unit in April to respond to a potential water shortage facing oil and natural gas companies that are engaged in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) activities in the Utica and Marcellus shales in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

An upheaval in investment and operational strategies is roiling the energy industry, in large part because of unconventional natural gas and oil resources, and it’s not all about supply and demand, ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said Tuesday.

Continental Resources Inc. plans to double the number of drilling rigs it has targeting a legacy shale play in Oklahoma in 2013, and it will increase development and exploratory drilling in the Bakken Shale as it looks to maintain its reign as North Dakota’s top oil producer.

As the state of New York missed Wednesday’s deadline to create regulations for high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF), supporters and opponents of the practice took aim at Gov. Andrew Cuomo, anti-fracking lawmakers sought a one-year moratorium, and a landowners group said it would sue the state over the delay.

U.S. onshore horizontal drilling has improved steadily across every category, in part because of improvements in technology, but the “human experience factor” appears to be playing a substantial role as well in moving well times and depth curves to the left, according to an analysis by Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH).

Baker Hughes Inc., the third largest oilfield services provider in North America, on Wednesday reported a big decrease year/year in earnings, in part because of a 25% oversupply of pressure pumping equipment used in unconventional natural gas and oil plays.

A drilling services company based in New Mexico has had to suspend its plans to convert its truck and drilling rig fleets from diesel to natural gas because of the local gas distribution utility’s inability to service a proposed fueling station in Farmington, NM.