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With the introduction of new risk controls, the British government has cleared the way for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to resume in the country where the shale gas reserve could be 4.2 Tcf, according to one estimate.

The San Antonio, TX, metropolitan area has gained about 4,000 jobs from the Eagle Ford shale Play, and its upcoming major road improvements could tap up to $12 million annually from the oil/gas development, according to a report released Tuesday by the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation.

The University of Massachusetts is switching the Central Heating Plant at its Amherst campus from oil to a liquefied natural gas system, a project that could provide $2 million of fuel cost savings annually, according to the university’s five-year capital plan. The $1.2 million project, which is going into operations this month, will allow the plant to end its practice of burning oil when winter conditions cause gas curtailments, according to The Massachusetts Daily Collegian. The plant will rely primarily on natural gas from Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Northampton Lateral.

New England’s reliance on natural gas to fuel power generators “could create operational challenges if natural gas supplies become tight this winter,” which would force the region to turn to oil- coal-fired generation “to lessen any operational risks” to the power system, according to a winter forecast issued Tuesday by ISO New England Inc. (ISO-NE).

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.

Natural gas supplies from Nova Scotia are dwindling, but the province of New Brunswick could join the shale gas renaissance sweeping much of North America, provided its shales can be exploited without harming the environment, New Brunswick Energy and Mines Minister Craig Leonard said Wednesday.

Natural gas supplies from Nova Scotia are dwindling, but the province of New Brunswick could join the shale gas renaissance sweeping much of North America, provided its shales can be exploited without harming the environment, New Brunswick Energy and Mines Minister Craig Leonard said Wednesday.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled that state law doesn’t give landowners the right to seek judicial review of well permits issued by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). However, the appeals court urged lawmakers to consider changing the law to give landowners more say.

Differing state and federal environmental regulations, and a lack of political will to streamline them, could retard growth of natural gas vehicles (NGV) in the transportation fuel market, according to a white paper by the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center in Pennsylvania.