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The U.S. Geologic Survey’s (USGS) assessment of the Williston Basin’s Bakken Shale and Three Forks formation in North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota, which combined was estimated at 7.4 billion bbl of technically recoverable oil, is “very conservative,” according to North Dakota’s chief oil and gas regulator.

Poland on Wednesday suffered a double dose of bad news regarding its prospective shale plays after Marathon Oil Corp. and Talisman Energy Inc. issued separate statements indicating that they were pulling out of the country.

Driven by steadily increasing midstream business, Atlas Pipeline Partners LLP’s (APL) natural gas volumes from onshore U.S. plays jumped by double digits in the first three months of this year from a year ago to average 1.03 Bcf/d, the operator said last week.

Driven by steadily increasing midstream business, Atlas Pipeline Partners LLP’s (APL) natural gas volumes from onshore U.S. plays jumped by double digits in the first three months of this year from a year ago to average 1.03 Bcf/d, the operator said late Monday.

Gas for delivery over the weekend and Monday rose on average 4 cents Friday. Double-digit declines at some Northeast points were easily overcome by broad regional strength, and only a handful of locations showed losses.

Forest Oil Corp. has struck an agreement with Schlumberger that the company said will allow it to accelerate development of its Eagle Ford Shale acreage.

Western Canada’s oil production should hit 5.7 million b/d by 2025, which is double the current output, boosted by unconventional growth from the oilsands and shale formations, according to ITG Investment Research (IR). Unconventional natural gas production also is seen lifting gas supplies by 3 Bcf/d from current numbers.

PDC Energy Inc. has signed a midstream services agreement with MarkWest Utica EMG LLC and plans to nearly double its capital expenditures (capex) in the Utica Shale for 2013 while also increasing its estimated net production.

ExxonMobil Corp. last week announced plans to invest close to $190 billion over the next five years to more than double exploration acreage in proven and emerging oil-rich areas to boost underperforming output and earnings. The amount comes to about $38 billion of upstream spending a year, or about $1 billion more than ExxonMobil spent in 2012 and a new record for the company.