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The oil and gas industry in the Eagle Ford Shale is growing so much that it is helping to create “entire communities” in some areas of South Texas, according to Kevin Robins, general manager of Job News USA in San Antonio.

Pennsylvanians believe that the benefits of natural gas drilling in the state’s shale plays outweigh any potential problems, but want the state to impose an extraction tax and require the disclosure of chemicals used by drillers, according to the results of a survey by the Muhlenberg Institute of Public Opinion and the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State and Urban Policy.

ConocoPhillips, which is spinning off its refinery assets to create a pure-play explorer, has agreed to sell its interests in two U.S. pipeline companies for a total of $2 billion. An agreement with a subsidiary of Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec is for a 16.55% stake in Colonial Pipeline Co. and Colonial Ventures LLC; the transaction is to close in 1Q2012. Definitive agreements also were reached with Enbridge Holdings (Seaway) LLC for a stake in Seaway Crude Pipeline Co., which is to close in December. Once closed, these transactions, along with sales already closed in 4Q2011, would total close to $10.5 billion by the end of 2012.

Marcellus Shale drilling rebounded in October, according to recently released figures.

Weakness in the equity markets has forced Williams to revamp a plan that will create two stand-alone publicly traded companies from its exploration and production (E&P) business and natural gas pipeline unit, the Tulsa -based company said Tuesday.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) and El Paso Corp. have agreed to a friendly, $38 billion buyout of the latter to create North America’s largest pipeline company worth about $94 billion. The purchase price is $21.1 billion before the assumption of debt. The combined company would have 80,000 miles of pipelines and its feet firmly planted in both oil and natural gas.

Williams, which saw its bid to merge with Southern Union Co. over a competing offer by Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) rebuffed again and again this past summer, apparently expressed an interest in acquiring some of Southern Union’s assets over the past two months, according to a regulatory filing.

Australian oil and gas developer Linc Energy is a new player in Wyoming’s humming oil and gas patch, bringing a focus on underground “cooking” of coal seams to create synthetic gas (syngas) and natural gas liquids.

The United States is poised for an “energy renaissance” that would give it independence from foreign energy supplies and create thousands of jobs, but it won’t happen without federal policies that expand domestic access to resources and give companies more regulatory clarity, Chevron Corp. CEO John Watson said last week.