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Encana Corp. was given the green light on Friday to start up the long-awaited Deep Panuke natural gas project offshore Nova Scotia.

Energy produced from U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) lands in FY2012 — which included 626 million bbl of crude oil, 5 Tcf of natural gas and 460 million tons of coal — contributed $230 billion to the national economy and supported 1.2 million jobs, according to the government agency’s newly releasedEconomic Report for Fiscal Year 2012.

U.S. oil and natural gas exploration and production companies added 31.2 Tcf of wet natural gas proved reserves and almost 3.8 billion bbl of crude oil and lease condensate proved reserves in 2011, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in areportissued Thursday.

Resolution of proposed penalties of up to $2.25 billion for San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) may not come this year after a state regulatory administrative law judge (ALJ) asked for additional data on how any eventual penalties might affect finances. In addition, the specter of a criminal case has emerged.

Halcon Resources Corp. said an exploratory well targeting the Utica Shale has been producing more than 2,000 boe/d. The company said it plans to spend “significant time” in the play, where it has the acreage to drill up to 500 gross wells.

Capacity recontracting continued to weigh on Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP revenues during the second quarter, but “every year, we seem to work out a little bit more of the problem,” CEO Stan Horton told analysts during an earnings conference call.

Williams on Thursday restricted some natural gas pipeline services on its mainstay Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line LLC (aka Transco) because of capacity constraints in the Pennsylvania portion of the Marcellus Shale.

Two big U.S. independents took too different paths in the second quarter, one showing solid natural gas gains — mostly in the Marcellus Shale — while the other saw climbing oil and liquids output from from its onshore plays, and in particular, the Eagle Ford Shale.

Backlog for capital equipment orders in National Oilwell Varco’s (NOV) rig technology segment was $13.95 billion at the end of 2Q2013, a record high, 8% higher than at the end of 1Q2013 and 24% higher than at the end of 2Q2012, the company said.