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The North American drilling services market is tight and getting tighter, squeezed by increased activity in liquids-heavy and emerging shale oil plays, Baker Hughes Inc. CEO Chad Deaton said Tuesday.

No snowstorms are expected except for possibly in some mountainous areas of the West, but quite a few folks may be getting a reminder Tuesday that the winter season isn’t all that long departed. The chillier forecasts, aided slightly by the return of industrial load from its weekend decline, resulted in flat to higher prices at a large majority of trading points Monday.

Former natural gas industry executive Sheffield Nelson has filed a ballot initiative in Arkansas to raise the state’s severance tax on natural gas production to 7% from the current 5% of market value.

Legislation being drafted by West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s administration includes a statutory pooling provision for shallow horizontal wells, which would include Marcellus Shale drilling in the state, according to Nick Casey, a member of the Lewis Glasser Casey & Rollins law firm in Charleston, WV.

Among natural gas shale plays, the Barnett Shale in North Texas is getting a bit long in the tooth, but it can hold its own with the nation’s other shale plays when it comes to proved reserves.

Shale play activity has come on like gangbusters in recent years, greatly augmenting the overall supply picture. Some producers appear dubious about how sustainable even the highly competitive economics of shale drilling are during a period in which gas prices universally have slipped below $4 into the pipe, but many keep shifting rigs into their shale acreage anyway.

After looking for better deals and getting no offers, Houston-based Dynegy Inc. urged its shareholders Tuesday to approve the pending merger with an affiliate of private equity firm The Blackstone Group LP and its $4.50/share offer at an upcoming special shareholders meeting Nov. 17.

Apparently any “storm hype,” which seemed to help buoy the market earlier in the week, was getting totally dismissed as prices sank at all but one point Friday, most often by double-digit amounts. Instead, the near-imminent diminution of most remaining cooling load and the weekend factor of considerably lower industrial demand were more persuasive to traders in sending cash prices lower.

Prices were up by double-digit amounts at nearly all points Monday, getting strength from warming temperatures returning to several areas, a futures gain of 13.4 cents on the preceding Friday and news of a tropical system off the West African coast that had a good chance of becoming the Atlantic’s first named storm (Alex) of the season.