Bringing

Marcellus Shale development is not bringing much money into local governments, but also not taking much money out of local governments, according to a recent study of two prolific Pennsylvania counties.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Congress set far too an “ambitious” schedule to implement rules bringing the $300 trillion U.S. derivatives market under agency oversight for the first time, said a former CFTC commissioner.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Congress set far too an “ambitious” schedule to implement rules bringing the $300 trillion U.S. derivatives market under agency oversight for the first time, said a former CFTC commissioner.

Denver-based Inflection Energy has leased 3,000 additional acres in Broome County, NY, in the midst of the Marcellus Shale, bringing the total under its control in the state to approximately 15,000 acres. The county is located on the border with Pennsylvania, where the privately held exploration and production company holds more than 6,000 acres.

Triangle Petroleum Corp. said it has acquired about 42,000 net acres prospective for the Bakken and Three Forks formations in the Williston Basin, bringing its total net acreage position in the Williston Basin to 72,000 net acres and bring its net operated acres to 51,000.

Shale gas production in the Haynesville and Marcellus shales was the bright production star in February, while output in the traditional, maturer regions fell due to cold weather and maintenance/repairs, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) monthly natural gas report.

Penn Virginia Corp. (PVA) has paid $14.5 million for approximately 4,100 net acres in Gonzales County, TX, bringing its total net Eagle Ford Shale acreage to about 10,900 acres, and has seen success with its initial Eagle Ford well, the Radnor, PA-based company said.

Former Fluor Corp. CEO Alan Boeckmann has been elected to the Sempra Energy board of directors, bringing a background in international business management in the engineering/construction sector. Boeckmann is a director of BHP Billiton and a board member of the National Petroleum Council. He also serves as the nonexecutive chairman of the board at Fluor, where he held several senior management and operating positions before becoming CEO in 2002.

Burgeoning gas supplies from shale plays are a boon not just to producers and domestic energy security hawks; they’re bringing smiles to executives across the U.S. petrochemical industry, too.