Levels

Focusing on the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on Wednesday made a pitch for more rules to cover the handling of wastewater produced in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) with the release of a new NRDC report.

Higher natural gas prices, even three or four times above current low levels, won’t harm the switch of fleets to compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural Gas (LNG) for transportation, according to a supplier of natural gas for transportation.

The Permian Basin in West Texas is the main engine driving Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) to record oil/gas production levels as its overseas operations continue to struggle in the Middle East/North Africa and Colombia, CEO Stephen Chazen said Thursday.

Some of Halliburton Co.’s pressure pumping deliveries in North America originally planned for this year will be deferred to 2013 to deal with “inefficiencies” that followed onshore producers moving from dry natural gas plays to more liquids-rich regions, company executives said Wednesday.

With prices languishing at their lowest levels in a decade, there’s been lots of hand wringing among supporters of natural gas-focused independents as they drop dry gas rigs or shift to more liquids-rich plays. But don’t expect to see any of those types of worry lines on the top guns of ExxonMobil Corp., the biggest gas producer in the United States.

With prices languishing at their lowest levels in a decade, there’s been lots of hand wringing among supporters of natural gas-focused independents as they drop dry gas rigs or shift to more liquids-rich plays. But don’t expect to see any of those types of worry lines on the top guns of ExxonMobil Corp., the biggest gas producer in the United States.

In the space of six years, shale gas development has turned the U.S. energy world upside down, driving natural gas prices well below the $15/Mcf levels they reached following Gulf of Mexico hurricanes in 2005, former FERC Commissioner Marc Spitzer said Wednesday in a webcast interview on the industry program “OnPoint.”

New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens said the agency plans to maintain current staff levels during the upcoming fiscal year because the budget doesn’t include funds to monitor new unconventional wells.

Following a trend among the major players in the Marcellus Shale, Range Resources Corp. is reporting record production rates after averaging 625 MMcfe/d across its portfolio in the fourth quarter.