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Canadian producers are riding shale gas technology imported from the United States to complete an about-face in drilling targets next year by switching over to tight oil formations.

The backers of multiple U.S. projects to liquefy and export domestic gas have all pointed to robust production coming from shale plays as the reason for their plans. The latest proposal by Cheniere Energy Inc. singles out the Eagle Ford Shale as a source of gas to be liquefied.

Now that the shale-driven natural gas supply renaissance has spread to natural gas liquids, namely ethane, multiple companies have announced ideas for doing something with it. Royal Dutch Shell plc has set its sites on the Marcellus Shale region for the possible construction of a world-class ethane cracker.

While there were multiple messages in the exhaustive report issued last week by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about last year’s San Bruno, CA, natural gas pipeline rupture and explosion, one thing rang out loudest from the five-member panel: tougher natural gas pipeline regulation is needed at both the state and federal levels (see related story).

While there are multiple messages in the exhaustive report approved Tuesday on last year’s San Bruno, CA, natural gas pipeline rupture and explosion by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) (see Daily GPI, Aug. 31), there is one that rang out loudest from the five-member panel — tougher pipeline regulation is needed at both the state and federal levels.

In an effort to capitalize on liquids-rich gas production in Texas and the Midcontinent and provide producers with a natural gas liquids (NGL) marketing alternative to Mont Belvieu, TX, Crosstex Energy Inc. unit Crosstex Energy LP said it is planning to expand Louisiana fractionation facilities and construct a new NGL pipeline.

The chairman of Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) said Thursday the merger with natural gas pipeline giant Southern Union Co. (SUG) will give the combined company more customer market access in U.S. shale gas plays and alleviate some growing takeaway issues.

Royal Dutch Shell said Monday it is planning to build a “world-scale” ethylene cracker with integrated derivative units in the Marcellus Shale in Appalachia. The cracker would process ethane from Marcellus natural gas to produce ethylene, one of the primary building blocks for petrochemicals.

Responding to a natural gas explosion that caused six deaths and multiple injuries last year at an electric power plant in Middletown, CT, the state’s House of Representatives on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would ban the use of “flammable gas to clean or blow the gas piping” of electric generating facilities.