Increasing

Western Canadian natural gas production is relocating, not dying, the nation’s top pipeline company has told the National Energy Board (NEB).

Range Resources Corp. CEO John Pinkerton said he believes 2012 will be “a breakout year” for the company as it ramps up production in the Marcellus Shale and develops assets in other plays to replace those in the Barnett Shale that were sold in April.

Domestic natural gas production, bolstered by shale plays, continued a five-year upward trend, increasing by nearly 5% in 2010 over the level in 2009, almost matching a nearly 6% hike in demand. Gas production was bolstered by a nearly 30% jump in shale play output, according to statistics published in the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Review for 2010.

Domestic natural gas production, bolstered by shale plays, continued a five-year upward trend, increasing by nearly 5% in 2010 over the level in 2009, almost matching a nearly 6% hike in demand. Gas production was bolstered by a nearly 30% jump in shale play output, according to statistics published Wednesday in the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Review for 2010.

The Utica Shale could double or triple liquids production in the Appalachian Basin, increasing the infrastructure challenges in the region, a midstream player told an audience in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

The pummeling of oil and natural gas producer stocks, which began last week, continued Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 634 points on the first day of trading after Standard & Poor’s (S&P) late Friday downgraded the United States credit rating from “AAA” to “AA+.”

A PacifiCorp plan to retain a fleet of coal-fired generation plants during the next decade while increasing substantially both its natural gas-fired and renewable energy-based power generation is stirring controversy.

Natural gas production in the Lower 48 states recovered in March from the weather-induced decrease seen in the previous month (see NGI, May 9), increasing 3.8% (2.49 Bcf/d) to 68 Bcf/d from 65.51 Bcf/d in February, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) monthly natural gas report.

Production in the Lower 48 states recovered in March from the weather-induced decrease seen in the previous month (see Daily GPI, May 4), increasing 3.8% (2.49 Bcf/d) to 68 Bcf/d from 65.51 Bcf/d in February, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) monthly natural gas report.