Directly

The federal government and states would reach a compromise on regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) if the parties agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the issue, a Texas official told a House panel Wednesday.

Spectra Energy has been busy building out infrastructure in the Northeast, where capacity is needed to get Marcellus and Utica gas to market. However, the Southeast and Gulf Coast regions are ripe for billions of dollars of investment as well, said Spectra’s Bill Yardley, president of the U.S. transmission and storage business.

The federal government should leave shale regulation to the states, but companies should be ready for changes to the tax code that will likely impact their industry, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers told a Philadelphia audience last Wednesday.

Energy industry leaders, while directly challenging the opposition, called on the more than 1,600 people attending the Shale Gas Insight 2011 conference in Philadelphia Wednesday to help promote a national energy policy that significantly expands the role of natural gas.

Energy industry leaders, while directly challenging the opposition, called on the more than 1,600 people attending the Shale Gas Insight 2011 conference in Philadelphia Wednesday to help promote a national energy policy that significantly expands the role of natural gas.

A single Marcellus Shale well in southwestern Pennsylvania directly adds $7.6 million to the economy, on average, according to a new study released Tuesday.

The cost to build major natural gas pipelines is rising, particularly in the Marcellus Shale, according to a new report.

Late Friday Anadarko Petroleum Corp. — a 25% partner with BP plc in the disastrous Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) — pointed the finger directly at its London-based partner and assigned blame for the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. BP fired back that it intends to continue doing its part, but noted that its partners also have “obligations.”

Weekend prices showed almost a directly opposite pattern from deals done a day earlier. Whereas Northeast citygates had spiked Thursday while the rest of the market was softer, on Friday it was the Northeast (along with the Rockies) plunging while all other points were rising, based largely on the bullish Nymex response to Thursday morning’s storage withdrawal report.