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Royal Dutch Shell plc has chosen Ascension Parish in Louisiana as the location for a potential multi-billion-dollar natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility.

ENGlobal Corp. has been awarded a $5 million contract to provide engineering and procurement support services for a cryogenic processing plant being built in Carroll County, OH, and owned by Utica East Ohio Midstream LLC (UEO).

A check, which says markets, not boosters, decide the fate of projects, is built into the biggest plan for exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from new terminals on the northern Pacific Coast of British Columbia (BC).

State regulators continue to be the primary overseers of shale natural gas development, but because of the speed at which the boom shifted — and continues to shift — the energy marketplace, the dynamic environment has created challenges for the energy industry and all of the stakeholders involved, according to a report by Resources for the Future (RFF).

To support rapidly expanding drilling programs in the Utica Shale’s southern core, MarkWest Utica EMG LLC on Friday agreed to construct a third 200 MMcf/d cryogenic natural gas processor at the Seneca complex in Noble County, OH.

Utility developers planning combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) projects in the Marcellus and Utica shales are looking for a “power price appreciation” from excess natural gas, not growing demand, to ensure a fair return on their investments, according to an analysis by Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Inc. (TPH).

Market dynamics have built big windows for North American natural gas projects, which international interests and big producers are ready to open, the Williams CEO said Tuesday.

Air Liquide Large Industries U.S. LP announced two projects in Freeport, TX, for its Gulf Coast pipeline and hydrogen/syngas businesses. The first project went on-line in March and has increased the supply of hydrogen purification and compression capacity to Air Liquide’s hydrogen pipeline system. The second project is expected to go online in 2014 and involves the construction of a new liquid oxygen storage and vaporization facility at the Freeport air separation unit complex to supply oxygen to the Gulf Coast pipeline network. This new installation represents an increase of nearly 25% over current storage and vaporization capacities on the networkd. Hydrogen gas is used by refiners to produce cleaner burning fuels, among other industrial uses. Government regulations calling for reductions in fuel emissions have increased demand for hydrogen. Growth in industrial gas demand is also anticipated as a result of the cost advantages resulting from low-priced natural gas, the company said.

BP plc is putting its U.S. wind energy business on the market to refocus on growing its oil and natural gas operations, the operator said Wednesday.