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An updated biannual report posted by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) shows that the state’s natural gas production saw a more than 40% increase in the first half of 2012 compared to the second half of 2011, and more than doubled in a year.

With heavy ramifications for Midcontinent energy infrastructure and eventual exports, the United States will find itself with oversupplies of both domestically produced liquids and crude oil from now through 2017, market consultant/analyst Rusty Braziel of RBN Energy LLC told a session of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) annual meeting in Denver earlier this month (Aug. 13-16).

ExxonMobil Corp. now has about 51 natural gas and oil rigs operating in the U.S. onshore, which is down from the 57 rigs it averaged from April through May and well below the rig count a year ago, Investor relations chief David Rosenthal told analysts on Thursday.

ExxonMobil Corp. now has about 51 natural gas and oil rigs operating in the U.S. onshore, which is down from the 57 rigs it averaged from April through May and well below the rig count a year ago, Investor relations chief David Rosenthal told analysts on Thursday.

Nabors Industries Ltd., North America’s largest onshore drilling contractor, expects operating results in the second quarter to fall below Wall Street expectations, primarily because of a slump in pressure pumping services and higher operations costs. To improve efficiencies, the company plans to consolidate its U.S. well servicing and pressure pumping operations.

Two and a half million gallons sounds like a lot of water, and producers can use that much and more to stimulate a well with hydraulic fracturing (fracking), but other uses consume a lot more, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson told an audience on the Council on Foreign Relations Wednesday.

Officials in New Brunswick unveiled a list of more than 100 recommended changes to the province’s regulatory framework for oil and natural gas on Thursday, including tougher casing and cementing standards, increased water protections and substantially higher royalties.

A district court judge in Texas has reversed his earlier ruling that oil and natural gas equipment used “below ground” should be exempt from state sales taxes on extraction equipment.

Where natural gas prices are concerned, last year’s “worst case” (gas below $3/Mcf) is this year’s “reality,” and the outlook for the net 12-24 months is “exceedingly ugly,” according to the buzz at Raymond James & Associates Inc.’s recent Institutional Investors Conference.