Once

Cash price moves in the Northeast and East Thursday once again separated from the rest of the market, with the overall average market gain a stout 33 cents, but the remainder of market points showed a rise of just over a nickel. Many eastern points posted multi-dollar gains, recording yet more price records (see Daily GPI, Jan. 24), but higher prices were posted at nearly all locations, with just a handful of points losing a few pennies or less.

Once a high-flying global merchant power plant developer/operator tied to one of the top U.S. energy holding companies, Edison Mission Energy (EME) crash landed Monday with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

An Encana Corp. official on Thursday once again urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw a year-old draft report of groundwater samples near natural gas drilling sites in Pavillion, WY, saying the report was “sloppy” and had led to a “misguided response.”

The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) said activity in the energy industry was a mixed bag and mentioned shale only once — but in a positive light — in the latest edition of the “Beige Book,” a report published eight times a year with data provided by the 12 Federal Reserve Districts.

Atlas Pipeline Partners LP, which serves producers in West Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, surpassed a record for processed natural gas volumes in 3Q2012, which were up 36% from a year ago, executives said Wednesday.

Williams plans to invest $1.34 billion and create 100 jobs between now and 2014 in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle to take advantage of unconventional natural gas growth, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Thursday.

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Michael Krancer said late last month he is “not convinced” that wastewater injection wells are an issue in the state, and said he disagreed with a state legislator’s plan to enact a two-year moratorium.

Following a series of tests indicating that water from private wells in Dimock Township, PA, is safe to drink, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday said it has determined “that there are not levels of contaminants present that would require additional action by the agency” and it has no plans to further test water samples in the township.

Denver-based explorer Voyager Oil & Gas Inc. on Tuesday agreed to buy a unit of Australia’s Emerald Oil & Gas NL in a deal that would create a U.S.-based Rocky Mountains operator focused on established and emerging unconventional oil and natural gas plays.