Beneficial

Big Sky Petroleum Corp. has acquired a 90% working interest in an initial lease block of more than 2,300 net operated acres on the eastern shelf of the southern Midland Basin in West Texas. The deal gives the Vancouver, BC-based company entry into the Wolfcamp/Wolfberry play.

The growth of the natural gas industry in the heart of Pennsylvania’s eastern Marcellus Shale helped the area avoid the worst of the 2008 recession, and the positive effects have only just begun, according to a study issued by the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development (IPPED).

Helping lead the charge for an eventual bipartisan and serious discussion about the future U.S. energy policy, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said Friday the federal government “doesn’t have a corner on the market” for regulating the oil and natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Natural gas development in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale has been economically beneficial, but maybe not as much as some studies have suggested, according to research by Pennsylvania State University.

Natural gas development in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale has been economically beneficial, but maybe not as much as some studies have suggested, according to research by Pennsylvania State University.

A significant majority of Pennsylvania residents support the use of a severance tax on drilling operations to help close a projected $4 billion state budget gap, according to the results of a survey released Thursday by the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA.

The growing popularity of the master limited partnership (MLP) business structure is proving beneficial as the natural gas industry struggles to expand infrastructure, but another trend — a shortage of skilled workers — could present major problems in the near future, panelists told FERC.

The growing popularity of the master limited partnership (MLP) business structure is proving beneficial as the natural gas industry struggles to expand infrastructure, but another trend — a shortage of skilled workers — could present major problems in the near future, panelists told FERC.

Have natural gas choice programs taken hold and producedsavings, or is the five-year old concept of offering people achoice of gas suppliers missing its mark?