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Calgary’s Gibson Energy Inc. is beefing up its U.S. onshore services with a US$445 million agreement to buy privately held Omni Energy Services Corp., based in Louisiana.

EOG Resources’ strategy of the last year to edge away from natural gas exploration and production in order to focus on the more economically viable production of crude oil appears to be paying off as the Houston-based producer posted a 38% increase in second quarter earnings over the previous year’s quarter. The company attributed much of its strong earnings to successful programs on acreage in the South Texas Eagle Ford Shale and North Dakota Bakken Shale.

Trends that surfaced last year indicate “a continued preference for crude oil and liquids-rich gas development over dry gas options,” and are likely to reduce — and possibly reverse — recent domestic dry gas production growth rates, according to a new report from Pace Global.

TransCanada Corp. received the last of three key permits needed for its 485-mile Gulf Coast Project, an oil pipeline from Cushing, OK, to Nederland, TX, that would help alleviate constraints at Cushing where oil from the burgeoning Bakken Shale has been piling.

If U.S. shale plays were students in a classroom, the one blowing the curve on the oil production test would be named Bakken.

Shell Chemical LP has chosen a rural area outside of Pittsburgh as the potential location for a major petrochemical complex that could include an ethane cracker in the heart of the Marcellus Shale.

Although the announcement does not mean the company is committed to its plans for a “world-scale” facility just yet, it ends months of speculation about where Shell would locate the facility and the competition among the three states in the running (see Shale Daily, Dec. 5, 2011; Sept. 7, 2011; June 7, 2011).

Ohio voters believe the benefits of shale gas development outweigh the risks, but they also believe the state should put the breaks on development, according to a new poll.

A report by an economics professor at Ohio State University says shale gas development in eastern Ohio will generate jobs, but only a fraction of the total projected by the industry.