Exactly

An official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said a progress report on its study of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on drinking water should be issued before the end of the year, and the final report published in 2014.

The Marcellus and Eagle Ford shales have exactly what the U.S. gas market doesn’t need right now: more gas on the way, according to natural gas analysts at Barclays Capital. They titled their latest note — an analysis of the effects of upcoming pipeline debottlenecking in the two plays — “Unleashing a Caged Monster.”

The Marcellus and Eagle Ford shales have exactly what the U.S. gas market doesn’t need right now: more gas on the way, according to natural gas analysts at Barclays Capital. They titled their latest note — an analysis of the effects of upcoming pipeline debottlenecking in the two plays — “Unleashing a Caged Monster.”

With an emphasis on oil over natural gas, Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) continued to shatter company production records in barrels of oil equivalent (boe) globally and domestically, Oxy senior executives said Thursday. At 755,000 boe Oxy’s daily oil/gas production was the highest in its history; and its U.S. totals of 455,000 boe set a record for the sixth straight quarter.

In Mexico there is no debate about shale gas having potential, but there is an ongoing discussion in the federal government concerning whether to focus on finding out exactly what that potential might be. A relatively new government body, the National Commission for Hydrocarbons (CNH), is pushing other parts of the federal government to pursue a more diversified energy strategy.

With West Virginia’s Marcellus Shale industry still in its infancy and state regulators saying they need additional staff and funding to adapt to the burgeoning drilling business, more than a dozen candidates are seeking to be elected later this year to a 14-month term as governor of the Mountain State.

There was something familiar about the pattern of Wednesday’s cash market. Perhaps it was because exactly two weeks earlier Northeast citygates were also spiking in the face of a approaching winter storm while nearly all other points softened moderately.

After moving above $4 in early morning trade for the first time in exactly six weeks, front-month natural gas futures values ducked lower temporarily on news from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that 95 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ended May 1. However, the bulls regained control soon after as June futures ended up closing out Thursday’s regular session at $4.081, up 19.4 cents.

U.S. demand for fossil fuels — natural gas, oil and coal — will remain “exactly flat” to 2020, with only gas projected to grow at a rate of just 0.6% a year, according to a new report by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI).