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Bismarck, ND-based MDU Resources Group Inc. senior executives on Thursday reiterated that they intend to exploit their home field advantage in all lines of their business by digging deeply into the Bakken Shale play’s continuing robust growth. And they talked bullishly about prospects this year despite reporting earnings that were down slightly quarter over quarter and year over year in 2011.

Even though its home country of France has nixed shale gas and oil exploration, Paris-based Total will continue to seek unconventional resources, a spokesman told NGI’s Shale Daily. Total sees gas as a major player on the world’s energy stage over the next 20 years.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) chemical disclosure is spreading throughout the Ark-La-Tex as Louisiana — home of most of the Haynesville Shale — is weighing new disclosure requirements modeled in part on those in place in Arkansas and recently mandated in Texas.

The debate over U.S. infrastructure hit home for the utility sector Wednesday in Los Angeles where a meeting of the nation’s state regulators dissected various aspects of a national challenge that runs through energy, water and telecommunications utilities just as readily as through city/county governments and state capitals. Part of the construction push will be in the gas pipeline sector, including added capacity from the Rockies and other regions, speakers said.

The debate over U.S. infrastructure hit home for the utility sector last Wednesday in Los Angeles where a meeting of the nation’s state regulators dissected various aspects of a national challenge that runs through energy, water and telecommunications utilities just as readily as through city/county governments and state capitals. Part of the construction push will be in the gas pipeline sector, including added capacity from the Rockies and other regions, speakers said.

Eight members of Congress have told President Obama that the United States’ national security interests are dependent on natural gas, and urged the president to support efforts to expand exploration, development and production, especially through hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Limited demand for natural gas could keep 9 Bcf/d of production from shale plays off the market over the next four years, a Bentek Energy LLC executivetold an audience in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

Surrounded by disruptions of the Middle East oil supply and nuclear devastation in Japan, President Obama finally recognized the virtues of home-grown natural gas last week, labeling it “first” among the options available to shore up U.S. energy policy.

Marcellus Shale operators in Pennsylvania are familiar with the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), the interstate regulatory agencies that manage water resources in eastern and central Pennsylvania, but currently don’t have to deal with a similar organization in the western half of the state. However, that may soon change.