Includes

Gastar Exploration Ltd. said Wednesday net production from its Marcellus Shale assets have increased more than 34-fold in a year, a result of ramped up drilling activity in the liquids-rich portion of the play during the second quarter of 2012.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) is acquiring 100% of Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) and a 50% interest in El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) pipeline from Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) for $6.22 billion.

Armada Oil Inc. has signed a geophysical data acquisition agreement with Geokinetics USA Inc. to conduct seismic testing on land in the Niobrara and Casper formations in southern Wyoming, the Houston-based independent oil and gas company said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett last week signed the state’s $27.7 billion budget for 2012-13 into law, which includes modifications to the tax code that could potentially offer billions in tax breaks to companies investing in an ethane cracker and associated manufacturing facilities.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett on Saturday signed the state’s $27.7 billion budget for 2012-13, which includes modifications to the tax code that could potentially offer billions in tax breaks to companies investing in an ethane cracker and associated manufacturing facilities.

“The truth is that Gasland is mostly hot air,” the narrator of Truthland says in the trailer for the new film.

The venerable Permian Basin in West Texas is in the “early innings” of an oil/gas renaissance that promises to be technology driven, riding the wave of horizontal drilling, which still represents only a quarter of Permian rig activity, according to a report released Monday by Houston-based financial services company U.S. Capital Advisors.

Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly have begun considering House Bill 2399, which among other things would provide a tax credit to companies that create new jobs related to the Marcellus Shale.

Williams Olefins LLC has awarded CB&I a $300 million contract for expansion of ethylene production capacity in Geismer, LA (see Shale Daily, Sept. 21, 2011). The award includes the license and basic engineering for the ethylene technology, the supply of the cracking furnaces and engineering, procurement, and construction of the expansion. Plant capacity is expected to be increased from 1.35 to 1.95 billion pounds per year. “The petrochemicals market is re-emerging in the U.S. due to the abundance of lower-cost ethane feedstock, directly attributable to increased shale gas production,” said CB&I CEO Philip K. Asherman. Ethylene, mainly produced via steam cracking, is the primary building block for the chemical industry and is used to produce a variety of products including plastics, fibers and rubbers.