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The bottlenecks of the Marcellus Shale appear to be easing, as two of the oldest shale producers in the region recently announced production milestones.

A nonprofit organization that conducts voluntary reviews of state oil and natural gas regulations has made a few minor recommendations for Colorado’s hydraulic fracturing (fracking) regulations, but concluded that the program is well managed and contains some strengths the shale gas industry would find noteworthy.

An investigation is ongoing into a rupture and explosion that occurred last week on a segment of Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) in southeastern Ohio, but weld failure is suspected. The same Line 200-4 pipeline experienced a similar failure earlier this year, as did the Line 200-1 pipeline.

An investigation is ongoing into the Wednesday morning rupture and explosion on a segment of Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) in southeastern Ohio, but girth weld failure is suspected. The same Line 200-4 pipeline experienced such a failure earlier this year, as did the similar Line 200-1 pipeline.

EnerVest Ltd. on Thursday said it had come to terms with Encana Corp. to acquire the Calgary-based producer’s Barnett Shale portfolio in North Texas for $975 million.

If operators and service companies want to succeed in shale plays, they should keep an eye on state regulators, even in states far from where they plan to operate, “simply because those regulations tend to get passed around,” said a contractor active in shale plays.

A potential market for growing gas supplies from the Marcellus Shale — Eastern Canada — could be in jeopardy as resistance to U.S. sourced gas grows among Canadian producers while Canadian landowners object to pipeline plans and a pipeline flow reversal project stumbles with regulators.

A newly formed joint venture (JV) of Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. and Avista Capital Partners has closed its first acquisition: 15,000 net acres in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania at an average cost of less than $1,500/acre, Carrizo said. The deal is the second announcement from the company in the same week as it strengthens its finances to plow ahead in the shales.

Rex Energy Corp. said results from its first test well into the Upper Devonian/Burkett Shale just north of Pittsburgh are encouraging enough to justify additional wells into the formation directly above the Marcellus Shale in the coming year.