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The Pittsburgh City Council has referred a series of proposed amendments, which would create “mineral extraction districts” and possibly open the city to at least limited Marcellus Shale drilling, to the city’s planning commission.

It’s too early in the game to know if the productivity power of the Utica/Point Pleasant Shale in Ohio and western Pennsylvania will match other U.S. unconventional plays, but initial natural gas well data is encouraging, and if the oil-prone window is successfully derisked, the play could prove to be a triple-play hydrocarbon monster, according to IHS Inc. researchers.

Already planted firmly on the side of states’ rights advocates in the debate about regulating hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said Thursday he thinks the Republican Party platform and presidential candidate Mitt Romney recognize that the states must play a key role in the nation’s energy policy.

ExxonMobil Corp.’s production in the Bakken Shale has reached about 32,000 boe/d, which is 60% higher than a year ago and double the amount the company was producing just three years ago, a top executive said Thursday. Two more oil-directed rigs have been added to the play in just the past three months.

Wyoming has set aside $750,000 to help fund cistern systems for Pavillion homeowners whose groundwater may have been contaminated by natural gas drilling, and affected residents will be able to take advantage of that offer, Gov. Matt Mead told reporters last Wednesday.

Regulators with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said permit applications for oil and natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale are taking about four months to process — about three months longer than they should take compared with past permitting.

New taxes on companies drilling for natural gas and oil in Ohio have the support of a majority of the state’s voters — especially if the resulting revenue would be spent to cut income taxes for residents — according to the results of a recent Quinnipiac University poll.

If it’s difficult to remember the last time Devon Energy Corp. made a big acquisition in North America, most energy know-it-alls would be forgiven. The Oklahoma City-based super independent, then living high off the hog from its Barnett Shale winnings, in early 2003 paid $5.3 billion to buy Houston’s Ocean Energy Inc. (see NGI, March 3, 2003).

If it’s difficult to remember the last time Devon Energy Corp. made a big acquisition in North America, most energy know-it-alls would be forgiven. The Oklahoma City-based super independent, then living high off the hog from its Barnett Shale winnings, in early 2003 paid $5.3 billion to buy Houston’s Ocean Energy Inc. (see Daily GPI, Feb. 25, 2003).