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Fort Worth, TX-based Quicksilver Resources Inc. has added depth to its North American lineup of oil and gas prospects with two large-scale commercial projects — one in search of a partner — which altogether would give it a large presence in seven North American basins, officials said Thursday.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. is raising its production guidance for this year and next year based upon better-than-expected well results, according to the Houston-based company. Magnum Hunter is currently producing 12,500 boe/d, compared to its 10,000 boe/d guidance for the year. The company expects to close out 2012 producing 14,500 boe/d, up from its previous projection of 13,000 boe/d. Magnum Hunter operates in the Marcellus, Eagle Ford and Bakken shales. “We are very fortunate to have three resource plays within our portfolio that are now ‘hitting on all cylinders’ and providing an increase in our overall production levels well above expectations,” said CEO Gary C. Evans. “This is especially rewarding when our management team has been able to achieve these milestones while also staying within our original capital budget plan.”

With heating load-generating conditions departing most areas outside the Rockies and either side of the Canadian-U.S. border, the market left a three-day string of mostly flat to higher numbers behind in recording drops at almost all locations Friday. The usual weekend decline of industrial load was another bearish influence, while the previous day’s rise of 6.6 cents by December futures provided little support for cash quotes.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has tapped former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Jim Hall to serve as an outside adviser to help the utility oversee the extensive safety improvement initiatives under way within its natural gas operations. Hall and his firm, Hall & Associates, are to focus in particular on ensuring that PG&E’s plans are effectively addressing the safety recommendations that have emerged during the past year through various audits and other inquiries into the San Bruno, CA, pipeline accident in September 2010. The recommendations are included in the final reports issued by the California Public Utilities Commission Independent Review Panel and the NTSB (see NGI, Oct. 3).

This week’s rally in the cash market appeared ready to pack up its tents and move on as nearly all increases outside the West diminished to about a nickel or less Wednesday. Traders apparently were coming to grips with the realities of relatively little weather-based or industrial load, further fading of storage injection opportunities except in the West, and the continuing lack of tropical storm threats to Gulf of Mexico production expected to last through the rest of the 2011 season.

The Appalachian region of southeastern Ohio provides supply chain companies with cost-effective and easy access to all of the states involved in the Marcellus and Utica shales, “while maximizing return on investment now and over the life of the shale gas reserves,” according to a white paper by the Ohio Business Development Coalition (OBDC). The state “is the ideal location” for Tier I and II suppliers to the shale gas industry, “offering a central location, logistics infrastructures, a skilled workforce and a favorable state tax structure,” according to the OBDC. Among the tax benefits touted by OBDC: Ohio does not tax products and services sold to customers outside the state.

PG&E Corp. has named Anthony Earley as its new chairman, CEO and president. Earley is the first PG&E CEO to come from outside the utility in PG&E’s more than 100-year history. As head of Michigan-based DTE Energy and its core businesses of Detroit Edison Co. and Michigan Consolidated Gas Co., Earley was credited with running two of the nation’s more respected electric and natural gas utility companies, according to PG&E lead director Lee Cox, who has been serving as interim CEO since Peter Darbee left earlier this year (see NGI, May 2). “We looked across the industry and found the person best qualified to help us win back public confidence,” Cox said. Earley began his utility career with Long Island Lighting Co. in 1985 and joined DTE in 1994. He previously was an officer in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine program, and holds an undergraduate degree, as well as graduate engineering and law degrees, from the University of Notre Dame.

So far its effort to reach outside the regulated utility structure with a new natural gas storage field in Northern California is not paying off for Portland, OR-based NW Natural, but CEO Gregg Kantor expressed confidence that things will turn around during a conference call Wednesday announcing second quarter earnings that were down quarter over quarter.

It didn’t take long for the natural gas industry and energy insiders to react to a New York Times (NYT) story on Sunday, which cited unnamed industry and government sources describing the shale gas industry as a “Ponzi” scheme with a future similar to Enron Corp. and the bursting of the dot.com bubble.