Collingwood

Opponents of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Michigan plan to begin collecting signatures for a petition that could ask voters in 2014 whether to allow the drilling stimulation practice to be used in the state.

Encana Corp. said Friday it has secured a well-heeled unit of Toyota Tsusho Corp. to partner in its languishing Alberta coalbed methane (CBM) gas fields in the Horseshoe Canyon Fairway, agreeing to sell close to a one-third stake in the resource play, including natural gas production from 5,500 existing wells.

The ongoing expansion of Atlas Pipeline Partners LP’s (APL) Velma system and similar projects on the partnership’s other systems must be completed before it can take on all of the production coming its way, APL said Tuesday.

Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. and a drilling partner are packing up and moving operations out of two Pennsylvania counties after determining that the first natural gas wells drilled in Luzerne County, PA, “were unlikely to produce natural gas in commercial quantities.”