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The Town Board of Onondaga, NY, voted Monday to extend its moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for three months, or until the board passes an ordinance either allowing or prohibiting the practice.

Gulfport Energy Corp. reportedly has the best producing well to date in the Utica Shale, according to initial production (IP) data released by the Oklahoma City-based operator.

Bonus payments to landowners with oil and natural gas leases climbed to new highs during the third quarter, but they skyrocketed in Ohio’s Utica Shale, according to a survey by Farmers National Co. (FNC), a real estate management firm that also tracks data for landowners.

Four trade associations last Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule requiring publicly traded domestic oil and natural gas producers to disclose to the public commercially sensitive information that could put them at a major disadvantage with foreign-owned energy companies.

Four trade associations Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule requiring publicly traded domestic oil and natural gas producers to disclose to the public commercially sensitive information that could put them at a major disadvantage with foreign-owned energy companies.

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law four pipeline safety bills that in part deal with the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion. He also signed a half-dozen other energy-related bills in the final days of September.

Riverton, WY-based U.S. Energy Corp. (USEC) said Monday it has acquired producing assets in the Bakken and Three Forks shale plays in North Dakota for $2.5 million, giving the small exploration and production (E&P) company minority interests in up to 23 drilling units with an estimated 307,000 boe in proved oil reserves.

Saying it is “a great time to be a Pennsylvanian,” Gov. Tom Corbett thanked the oil and natural gas industry for bringing thousands of jobs to his state and predicted an even brighter future as he kicked off the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s Shale Gas Insight 2012 Conference in Philadelphia on Thursday.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said it has fulfilled four of the 12 safety recommendations outlined by the National Transportation Safety Board following the natural gas transmission pipeline explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno, CA, two years ago. The San Francisco-based combination utility said it expects to satisfy two more recommendations in early 2013, which include validating maximum allowable operating pressures (MAOP) for all transmission pipelines. Recommendations completed include an emergency response procedure, 911 notifications from the utility’s gas control room, toxicological tests for employees involved in major incidents, and updating the utility record keeping system that tracks the MAOP for critical pipeline segments.