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Hollywood is preparing to bring Marcellus Shale oil and natural gas drilling to the big screen next winter and has started filming in Western Pennsylvania.

As producers turned up the volume on their opposition to the federal government’s regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public lands, they caught a break in the long-awaited proposed rule that Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued Friday.

If the U.S. does export liquefied natural gas, the impacts will be modest all around and the market will balance itself, a year-long study by the Brookings Institution found.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has levied a $40,000 fine on an Ultra Petroleum Corp. subsidiary for several violations from 2011, including operating an illegal transfer station from a Marcellus Shale well pad in Potter County.

Although the announcement does not mean the company is committed to its plans for a “world-scale” facility just yet, it ends months of speculation about where Shell would locate the facility and the competition among the three states in the running (see Shale Daily, Dec. 5, 2011; Sept. 7, 2011; June 7, 2011).

The Marcellus Shale boom does not appear to be driving up crime rates in Pennsylvania, but more research is needed to gauge the actual impact, according to a Pennsylvania State University report.

Devon Energy Corp. is not actively developing any dry natural gas plays in North America, nor does it have any rigs operating in gas-only plays, the management team said last week.

With the wave of new shale gas supplies flooding the U.S. market and pushing prices to nearly 10-year lows, the natural gas industry is actively searching out new markets and customers to increase demand, panelists told an audience at the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association’s Winter Meeting in Champion, PA, on Tuesday.

What does the largest North American natural gas producer do when prices aren’t going its way? Move rigs to liquids plays, ExxonMobil investor relations chief David Rosenthal said Tuesday.