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Growing producer demand for well services to support development of North American shale natural gas plays is a main driver behind GE’s planned acquisition of the well support division of John Wood Group plc for $2.8 billion, the company said.

Appalachian production for the exploration and production (E&P) arm of National Fuel Gas Co. escalated in the last quarter of 2010 at a triple-digit pace year/year, jumping 184% to 8.1 Bcfe, with most of the gains — 5.9 Bcfe — from the Marcellus Shale, executives said Friday.

Gas-on-gas competition is a concept long established in the industry. How about shale-on-shale competition?

Pacific Gas and Electric did not extend a systemwide high-inventory OFO beyond Saturday.

Up to 17 natural gas-fired electric generation plants along California’s coast are the main focus of new water cooling restrictions adoped last Tuesday by a state water board in close collaboration with the state’s major energy agencies. The arcane and still-not-fully-developed rules were approved by the California Water Resources Control Board after five years of analysis, a full day of testimony from staff and stakeholders, and the clarification of 17 last-minute amendments.

In what its CEO pointed to as a model in reorganizing its predominantly natural gas-fired generation fleet, Calpine Corp. announced last Wednesday it has agreed to buy Pepco Holdings Inc.’s 4,490 MW independent Conectiv Energy power plant fleet for $1.65 billion in a deal that will make one of the nation’s largest independent power producers considerably larger and broader in market reach. At the same time, Calpine will increase its status as one of the nation’s largest wholesale gas consumers.

Tennessee said Wednesday afternoon it had identified a leak on the Fidelity Line 8A-300 lateral located at Main Line Valve 8 near Victoria, TX. Two meters were required to shut in until further notice, the pipeline said. It added that shipper nominations there were allowed to remain in place for Wednesday’s gas day but must be reduced to zero effecitve with Evening Cycle nominations for Thursday.

Trans Energy Inc. has secured 45,000 MMBtu/d of firm natural gas takeaway capacity in its main operating areas of Marshall, Wetzel and Marion counties in West Virginia from Caiman Eastern Midstream LLC, the company said Monday.

Last year global concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide — the main long-lived greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere — reached the highest levels recorded since pre-industrial times, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), an agency of the United Nations (UN).