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Tundra Energy Marketing Ltd. and CN, Canada’s national railway company, have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a crude oil car loading terminal in southwestern Manitoba, near the border with Saskatchewan, to serve Bakken oil producers in the two provinces, the companies said Thursday.

Running counter to recent public and private sector analyses, mediocre results so far and complex geology have combined to cause an Alliance Bernstein (AB) analyst to question whether the Monterey Shale will live up to some of the hype surrounding its future prospects. Even with these reservations, high oil prices could push the play closer to its potential, the report conceded.

Regulating hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public lands as the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposes to do would cost society $1.499 billion to $1.615 billion per year, according to an analysis commissioned by the Western Energy Alliance (WEA).

With increasing demand for natural gas by power generators on the horizon and some in the energy industry lamenting a lack of coordination between gas and power interests, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) has established a board-level task force to tackle issues related to growing power demand for gas.

Critics of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in California lament an alleged lack of information from the oil/natural gas industry, but producers are trying to counter what they consider to be gross misinformation on the drilling practice.

The cash market for weekend and Monday delivery overall tumbled on average of just over a dime Friday as traders cited a lack of weekend demand and Monday temperatures in key metropolitan areas were forecast to reach no more than seasonal norms. Most points were lower, but California points were particularly hard hit.

The overall physical market tumbled on average by 9 cents Thursday as traders cited a lack of demand, a return of nuclear generation and unsupportive weather patterns.

Blame it on the rain, or a lack thereof. Just days after the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) had restored all of the 17 water withdrawal permits it had temporarily suspended in mid-April, back-and-forth drought conditions in northeast Pennsylvania have forced the agency to re-suspend two permits.

Will ethane production from shale plays in Appalachia support all of the ethane projects proposed for the region?