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Global natural gas and oil companies remain cautious as they consider making new investments and hiring more employees, but a surge in worldwide energy demand should increase hiring to the end of this year, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Although the odds for a Lower 48 gasline originating in Alaska’s North Slope appear to be waning, the state has choices to consider for serving the needs of consumers in the interior and Southcentral regions of the state.

Williams said Tuesday it hopes to complete negotiations quickly after Southern Union Co. agreed to consider its unsolicited takeover offer.

Shale gas plays and significant technological advances that allow their development helped drive the latest assessment of U.S. natural gas reserves by the Potential Gas Committee (PGC) to a new high.

A hearing at the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission (AOGC) to consider whether two saltwater injection wells in the Fayetteville Shale are related to seismic activity in the region has been postponed to April 26 from March 29 at the request of the injection well owners, Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Operating Inc. and Little Rock, AR-based Clarita Operating LLC. The wells are currently shut in and will remain so until at least the date of the hearing and maybe longer depending on what is decided at the AOGC. Both companies maintain that their wells are not related to a recent swarm of earthquakes in the area; however, since the wells were shut in, quake activity has declined somewhat (see Shale Daily, March 17).

The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission (AOGC) planned to hold an emergency meeting Friday (March 4) to consider a staff request that injection of natural gas drilling waste be halted at two disposal wells while a potential connection to earthquakes in the region is considered.

As the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) met last Thursday to consider proposals to implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, commissioners expressed alarm that the deep budget cuts passed by the House for fiscal year 2011 will not only threaten the agency’s ability to meet its new mandate under Dodd-Frank to regulate the derivatives market but also its traditional duties — overseeing the futures market.

As the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) met Thursday to consider proposals to implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, commissioners expressed fear that the deep budget cuts proposed by the House for fiscal year 2011 will not only threaten the agency’s ability to meet Dodd-Frank’s mandate to regulate the derivatives market but also its oversight of the futures market.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp., which has been on the prowl for unconventional gas and oil resources for several months, on Wednesday agreed to pay $325 million to acquire Bakken Shale producer NuLoch Resources Inc.