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While other stakeholders have been critical of California’s preliminary draft hydraulic fracturing (fracking) rules, two energy attorneys with the firm of K&L Gates consider the rules’ proposed protections for trade secrets to be adequate for shielding exploration and production (E&P) operators’ proprietary information tied to fracking.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. intends to drill at least four Utica Shale test wells in Ohio this year, the Houston-based independent exploration and production company said Tuesday.

With few exceptions, all points scored at least double-digit gains Monday with some points putting in dollar-plus moves as cold weather sliced into the West over the weekend and was forecast to march eastward. On average gains were 28 cents overall, with the volatile Northeast points scoring the most gains. At the close February natural gas futures had added 4.6 cents to $3.373 and March was higher by 4.2 cents to $3.378. February crude oil gained 58 cents to $94.14/bbl.

The United States has at least 2,400 billion metric tons of possible carbon dioxide (CO2) storage capacity in saline formations, oil and gas reservoirs and unmineable coal seams, enough to potentially store “hundreds of years’ worth of industrial greenhouse emissions,” according to a report from the Department of Energy (DOE).

This year likely will finish as the warmest since “at least” 1950 across the United States, but enough cold air is on the radar to spread snow to areas that have been without on Christmas for a few years, according to Accuweather.com.

North Dakota continues to set new records for oil and natural gas production, but it also continues to see more flared gas, according to officials.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Wednesday approved an air quality plan for construction of a gas-fired power plant, the first to be powered, at least in part, by natural gas harvested from the Marcellus Shale.

A combination of slackened demand and robust production will make natural gas supplies plentiful in the Pacific Northwest until 2029 at least, Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities recently told regulators in the three states in which it has gas and electric operations.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of Act 13, the state’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, on Oct. 17 in Pittsburgh.