Important

June futures made an initial attempt to rally Tuesday, but market technicians observed that the market failed to breach important resistance areas and prices settled slightly lower. At the close of trading June had eased 0.1 cent to $4.345 and July had shed 0.2 cent to $4.391. July crude oil surged $1.89 to $99.59/bbl.

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.

Texas Senate lawmakers Monday overwhelmingly passed legislation that would abolish the three-member Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) and replace it with the one-member Texas Oil and Gas Commission. The bill is headed for the House Energy Resources Committee, where a three-member commission is favored by Chairman Jim Keffer (R-Eastland).

Williams is investing C$311 million to expand two Alberta off-gas facilities that would support a new long-term agreement to produce up to 17,000 b/d of ethane and ethylene for Canadian petrochemical heavyweight NOVA Chemicals Corp.

As energy storage generally becomes more important economically, a natural gas storage field proposed for an existing suburban residential area in Sacramento, CA, has its backers lamenting the political dust being stirred up (see Daily GPI, March 16). Nevertheless, the head of Sacramento Natural Gas Storage told NGI Wednesday he thinks the project ultimately will prevail.

Ed Duncan is returning to Alaska’s North Slope where his career began about 30 years ago. This time around he has today’s unconventional drilling technologies to unlock what he expects will be a new beginning for himself and for the state.

Thirty Texas lawmakers recently wrote to Gov. Rick Perry seeking an emergency proclamation for additional air monitors in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to track emissions from Barnett Shale natural gas activity.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, has rejected a motion by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to dismiss a case brought by independent producers alleging that the agency failed to go through the proper channels to regulate diesel fuel used in the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) process.

It might seem that the Eagle Ford and Marcellus shales are being developed at breakneck speed, but it’s important to remember that these are the early days in two resource plays that will be natural gas breadbaskets for the nation in the decades to come.