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The rig count may be half of what it was a year ago, but Northeast dry natural gas output just keeps getting stronger.

With a seemingly ever-increasing mother lode of crude oil from the Bakken Shale play, North Dakota lawmakers have embarked on a process for developing a long-term strategy regarding state revenues and taxation of the oil industry. An initial review of bidders to help in mapping the strategy is set for Oct. 31.

Annova LNG LLC has filed with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for authorization to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) to customers that are too small to buy from larger liquefaction and export projects.

Unconventional natural gas in the onshore likely will keep U.S. prices low until 2020, but it may not translate to climate benefits or an improved economy, according to an elite group of industry, academic and scientific experts.

In the wake of the news Friday that the Energy Information Administration (EIA) would cease operations and furlough its staff thanks to the U.S. Government shutdown, traders and analysts are waiting to see how the natural gas futures market deals with the lack of a weekly storage inventory update.

The Marcellus Shale and other shale plays may continue to lead the U.S. natural gas renaissance in the near term, but the Rockies are primed for a resurgence later in this decade, a WPX Energy Inc. executive said last week.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA), one of the few governmental agencies that was able to stay open during the beginning days of the shutdown because it had reserve funds, said it would cease operations and furlough its staff at the end of the day Friday.

Canadian hopes to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) rely on oil prices to stay high and overseas supply contracts to uphold value parity between the two energy commodities, an industry analyst said Thursday.

President Obamahas accused Republicans of being responsible for restricting oil and natural gas production on federal lands, rather than Democrats, during the government shutdown (seeNGI,Oct. 7). “You know, the Republicans say they’re very concerned about drilling,” the president said at a news briefing. “They say Obama’s been restricting oil [and gas] production, despite the fact that…production is at its highest levels it has been in years and is continuing to zoom up. They say, you know, the Democrats are holding back oil production in this country.”Senate Energy and Natural Resources CommitteeRepublicans quickly fired back. “Forgive us for thinking it slightly insincere of the president to suddenly claim concern about federal oil and natural gas permitting.” The shutdown, which went into effect on Oct. 1, has halted theInteriorDepartment’s processing of onshore permitting and slowed processing for offshore drilling. “So why would the Republicans say to the folks who are interested in drilling for oil, sorry, we can’t let those things be processed…That doesn’t make sense,” Obama said.