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Demand for oilfield services in North America’s onshore — especially hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) — is growing faster than companies can add equipment, Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar said Monday.

Having been part of the shale natural gas supply revolution, Chesapeake Energy Corp. wants to “kick-start the demand revolution,” CEO Aubrey McClendon said Monday when the company announced a $1 billion venture capital fund — Chesapeake NG Ventures Corp. (CNGV) — to invest in companies and technologies to enable replacement of gasoline and diesel fuel with natural gas and gas-to-liquids (GTL) fuels.

Activity in natural gas shale plays has tended to heat up fast, especially when producers get a whiff of liquids-rich gas. Besides buying up acreage, producers are committing to gathering, processing and transportation services, and buyer’s remorse can result from moving too fast, a Range Resources executive warned recently.

Natural gas is mostly methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas, especially in the short term, with 105 times more warming impact pound for pound than CO2, said Cornell ecologist Robert Howarth. He added that “even small leaks make a big difference” and estimated that as much as 8% of the methane in shale gas leaks into the air during the lifetime of a hydraulically fractured shale gas well, which is up to twice what escapes from conventional gas production.

Unconventional natural gas and liquids plays account for a larger slice of the gas-directed rig count pie than they did just a short time ago. More horizontal drilling and the emergence of the second generation of shale plays characterize the market today, according to analysts at Barclays Capital.

Marcellus Shale gas already is displacing pipeline flows from the west, an energy analyst said Tuesday at the Argus Marcellus Shale Gas Summit 2010 in Houston.

A process that could lead to significant cost reductions to transport, store and use natural gas and methane hydrates — especially as compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) — has been developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).

A process that may lead to significant cost reductions to transport, store and use natural gas and methane hydrates — especially as compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) — was unveiled late Wednesday by researchers at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).

With cooling load sinking rapidly, especially in the South, prices fell at nearly all points Wednesday. The previous day’s 2.9-cent decline by September futures as they entered their three-day countdown to expiration also contributed to cash softness.