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Just before the New Year holiday, separate federal court actions dealt body blows to stiffer air pollution limits on vehicles and power plants. Industry sources hailed the rulings as a break for consumers facing higher fuel and energy costs.

The North Dakota Industrial Commission on Tuesday approved a 30,000-acre single oil production unit in an area bounded by a state park and river in the west-central part of the state. The vote was unanimous to allow the atypically large production unit, which is intended to better protect the environment, a commission spokesperson told NGI’s Shale Daily.

Tapping shale natural gas reserves — even when accounting for the challenges of hydraulic fracturing — is worth the risk, a majority of those polled told a recent survey. And eight out of 10 respondents said they link natural gas development with job creation and economic revival.

Although it is not likely to subside in the months ahead, concern among state officials regarding proposed federal rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is creating a lot of posturing from both political and legal standpoints. North Dakota is in the middle of the messy states’ rights public debate.

FERC has issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) of Sawgrass Storage LLC’s proposal to convert a depleted natural gas reservoir to an underground storage facility just west of Perryville in Lincoln and Union parishes in northeast Louisiana.

If ever there was an explorer for other producers to take a page from, it just might be Noble Energy Inc., which has quietly become one of the players to watch in the U.S. onshore.

The world shale gas industry has undergone big changes industrywide in just a year’s time and it still faces a “period of great uncertainty and policy challenges,” an energy expert said last week.

The world shale gas industry has undergone big changes industrywide in just a year’s time and it still faces a “period of great uncertainty and policy challenges,” an energy expert said Tuesday.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he completely supports Spectra Energy’s proposal to expand two natural gas pipelines into the city, just days before the Oct. 31 deadline for FERC to take public comments on the project.