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The U.S. chemical industry “feels overwhelmingly upbeat” these days in part because of abundant, low-cost natural gas supplies from shale resources, but operators need to prepare for a big transformation of their businesses before chemical supply outstrips demand, according to a new report by KPMG LLP.

The use of natural gas as a transportation fuel is gaining momentum because of the economics, vehicle manufacturing, fueling infrastructure and public policy support, according to NGVAmerica President Richard Kolodziej.

National Fuel Gas Midstream Corp. (NFG Midstream), a unit of National Fuel Gas Co., said its Trout Run Gathering System in Lycoming County, PA, was recently placed in service and is delivering gas to an interconnect with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC (Transco). Initial production is from four recently completed wells operated by Seneca Resources Corp., a subsidiary of National Fuel.

eCorp International LLC and a property owners organization in New York have decided to scrap a “complex” plan to create a company indirectly owned by the landowners and will return to the drawing board, delaying the possibility of bringing waterless hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to the Empire State.

Legislators and regulators in New York are hinting that should high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) be permitted in the Empire State, localities that are the most receptive to the practice may be the first — and, possibly, the only — areas to allow it.

ConocoPhillips, a partner in the long-planned C$16.2 billion Mackenzie Gas Project (MGP), said Friday the co-venturers have suspended funding because of “a continued decline in market conditions and the lack of acceptable commercial terms.”

WPX Energy, newly spun off from Williams, is having to rethink its first full year as an exploration and production (E&P) company because of sustained low natural gas prices, the company said late Monday.

Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) intends to stick with plans it announced last year to cut natural gas production in the Midcontinent because low prices continue to be “horrible,” CEO Stephen Chazen said Wednesday.

Kinder Morgan Inc.’s (KMI) analyst day Wednesday drew the largest crowd CEO Rich Kinder said he’s ever seen at the event. Perhaps it was because of “some little acquisition we’ve been working on” (El Paso Corp.), he suggested. Even with lawyers keeping executives mostly mum on that item, shale gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) made for plenty to talk about.