Five

Higher U.S. manufacturing exports may add up to five million jobs by the end of the decade as manufacturers shift production from Europe and Japan to take advantage of lower domestic costs, including lower natural gas costs, according to The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Higher U.S. manufacturing exports may add up to five million jobs by the end of the decade as manufacturers shift production from Europe and Japan to take advantage of lower domestic costs, including lower natural gas costs, according to The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Mixed with the solid reviews about all-time record highs for monthly natural gas and oil production in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale and Williston Basin region, the director of the state’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) sounded words of caution that the drilling boom is showing signs of easing, but not because production has slowed much.

Caballo Energy LLC is building a cryogenic gas processing plant to serve expanding production in the liquids-rich Mississippian Lime and Cana Woodford Shale plays.

Noting that the cost of storage is probably three times cheaper today than five years ago, an energy trading firm executive made a pitch for a new marketing process for gas storage capacity at the LDC Gas Forum Midcontinent conference Tuesday in Chicago.

Domestic natural gas production will be at an all-time high this year and is expected to break that record for a third consecutive year in 2013, thanks in large part to the nation’s booming shale plays, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Short Term Energy Outlook for September.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has notified Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. that the company has satisfied the terms of a 2010 settlement and may resume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and completion activities at seven Marcellus Shale natural gas wells in Dimock Township. However, the producer is still barred from drilling new wells in the area.

Health care providers Guthrie Health and Geisinger Health System have formed a partnership to study the health impacts of Marcellus Shale gas drilling, saying it will be “the first large-scale, scientifically rigorous assessment of the health effects of” natural gas production.

Permits and production are soaring in the Niobrara Shale where Chesapeake Energy is indicating it has unlocked some important finds as it eyes the play as a significant contributor to its strategy for expanding its production of natural gas liquids (NGL).