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Slowing economic growth in China pushed nearly all equity markets south last week, with energy caught in a sell-off of “everything commodity-related,” but a flat natural gas rig count, combined with an eroding storage overhang, provide opportunities for U.S. gas prices and related operators to trade higher this year, said BMO Capital Markets Dan McSpirit and Phillip Jungwirth.

Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) Tuesday penalized Oxy USA Inc. nearly $1 million for the “knowing or willful failure” to permit a state audit of the company’s oil and natural gas leases on federal lands in New Mexico.

With the price of gold now down nearly 30% from its record September 2011 high of $1,920.30/oz to around $1,377, analysts looking for a commodity to be bullish about have turned their focus to natural gas as a new commodity “safe haven,” thanks to the shale revolution.

With the price of gold now down nearly 30% from its record September 2011 high of $1,920.30/oz to around $1,377, analysts looking for a commodity to be bullish about have turned their focus to natural gas as a new commodity “safe haven,” thanks to the shale revolution.

Nearly a dozen CEOs of large U.S.-based publicly owned oil and gas companies earned some of the biggest compensation packages in the country last year, according to preliminary data compiled by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm.

As part of a current fiscal year $90 million program, the California Energy Commission (CEC) on Wednesday awarded two more grants totaling nearly $700,000 to help advance alternative fuel and vehicle technology throughout the state. One grant ($278,000) went to a Southern California school district in Upland, CA, to update the district’s compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling facility to expand its fleet of CNG-powered buses. A second award ($400,000) went to Greenkraft Inc., an automotive manufacturer in Anaheim, CA, to use as buy-down incentives on the purchase of 40 medium-duty propane trucks. These incentives help pay the difference between alternative fuel vehicles and conventional ones. They are available only for new natural gas- and propane-powered vehicles that meet all of the emissions requirements of the California Air Resources Board. The CEC administers the state’s “Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program,” created by the state legislature in AB 118 a few years ago.

Nearly a dozen CEOs of large U.S.-based publicly owned oil and gas companies earned some of the biggest compensation packages in the country last year, according to preliminary data compiled by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm.

For industry and government officials in North Dakota hungry for new ways to reduce the nearly 30% of the state’s associated natural gas that is flared, it is unclear if an innovative approach from a Louisiana-based oil/gas field services firm using converted military helicopter jet engines will prove to be a panacea anytime soon.

The Continental Divide-Creston gas drilling project, which would be the largest in Wyoming, could add nearly 9,000 new wells on more than 6,100 well pads in Carbon and Sweetwater counties, creating thousands of jobs, but it needs to be done right, said Gov. Matt Mead.