Maybe

Onshore drilling activity in the United States and Canada has begun to pick up, with excess pressure pumping capacity “being absorbed ever so slowly,” the top financial officer for Baker Hughes Inc. said this week.

With the introduction of new risk controls, the British government has cleared the way for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to resume in the country where the shale gas reserve could be 4.2 Tcf, according to one estimate.

Despite fierce competition, Gulfport Energy Corp. CEO Jim Palm said his company has managed to acquire additional acreage in the Utica Shale as it looks to determine type curves, well spacing and how long it should wait before bringing new wells into production.

Talisman Energy Inc.’s North American production from ongoing operations experienced a healthy increase in 3Q2012, but weak natural gas prices have the company and its new CEO, Hal N. Kvisle, trimming capital expenses (capex) as part of a plan to run a more streamlined operation in 2013.

Williams is seeing “a lot of demand for increased growth” in the Northeast and is ready “to take advantage” with a bevy of major infrastructure expansion projects, CEO Alan Armstrong told investors on Thursday.

The Utica Shale could be worth $500 billion, and the “biggest thing economically to hit Ohio, since maybe the plow,” Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon told an audience in Ohio last Wednesday.

Natural gas development in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale has been economically beneficial, but maybe not as much as some studies have suggested, according to research by Pennsylvania State University.

Natural gas development in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale has been economically beneficial, but maybe not as much as some studies have suggested, according to research by Pennsylvania State University.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has 100 wells, “maybe a few more,” in the Marcellus Shale alone that are not completed or tied in as they await infrastructure, a company executive said Tuesday.