Begun

The North American drilling services market is tight and getting tighter, squeezed by increased activity in liquids-heavy and emerging shale oil plays, Baker Hughes Inc. CEO Chad Deaton said Tuesday.

Responding to concerns expressed by citizens, the government of Nova Scotia has begun a year-long review of environmental issues associated with hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking).

Natural gas has begun flowing through a subsea pipeline offshore Qatar into Pearl GTL, the largest gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant ever built, Royal Dutch Shell plc said last week.

Natural gas has begun flowing through a subsea pipeline offshore Qatar into Pearl GTL, the largest gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant ever built, Royal Dutch Shell plc said Wednesday.

JayHawk Energy Inc. has begun evaluating for drilling its recently acquired acreage in the Bakken Shale. The Post Falls, ID-based company also said it was looking to add more acreage to its Bakken holdings and plans to accelerate its efforts through purchases and joint ventures through 2011. JayHawk has procured more than 1,066 gross acres — about 135 net acres — in Divide County, ND. Spacing of wells is currently 1,280 acres, so JayHawk said it will pool its acreage with other interest holders in order to drill a well, possibly by 4Q2011.

The price rally that had begun Monday didn’t reverse entirely but appeared to be losing some steam Wednesday. More than a few points were able to extend previous gains by small amounts, but even more were faltering due to declining heating load in some areas and the previous day’s downturn of 6.3 cents by April futures.

Corridor Resources Inc. has begun the approval process to drill an exploration well on the Old Harry prospect in the Laurentian Channel, the Halifax, NS-based junior resource company said.

Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP (PVR) has begun commercial operations on the first large-diameter gathering pipeline in the north-central Pennsylvania Marcellus fairway, the Radnor, PA, company said.

TransCanada Corp. last Tuesday said its Bison Pipeline has begun service, transporting natural gas produced in the Powder River Basin to customers in growing Midwest markets.