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Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc. are beginning to see an upturn in U.S. and Canadian oilfield services following a tumultuous three-year period, which witnessed a six-month moratorium in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and a frenzied shift in onshore drilling activity from natural gas fields to liquids targets.

Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc. are beginning to see an upturn in U.S. and Canadian oilfield services following a tumultuous three-year period, which witnessed a six-month moratorium in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and a frenzied shift in onshore drilling activity from natural gas fields to liquids targets.

Around the middle of the year, SM Energy Co. management will have a clearer picture of how it will allocate its spending among a number of opportunities as it targets annual production growth of 15-20% over the next three years, executives said during a conference call Wednesday.

The torrent of natural gas production coming out of North America’s shale plays reminds Jim Duncan, chief analyst and commodity market strategist at ConocoPhillips Gas & Power, of the opening lines of “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens’ epic novel of the French Revolution.

Natural gas drilling activity continued its downward slide during the first quarter, while oil well completions rose during the period, according to the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) quarterly well completion report issued this week.

Gastar Exploration Ltd. plans to suspend its Marcellus Shale capital program “for a short period” during the second half of the year while it monitors production results and allows time for constraints in midstream services to be worked out, CEO Russ Porter said last week.

Gastar Exploration Ltd. plans to suspend its Marcellus Shale capital program “for a short period” during the second half of the year while it monitors production results and allows time for constraints in midstream services to be worked out, CEO Russ Porter said Tuesday.

Following a judge’s decision in favor of TPG-Axon Capital, SandRidge Energy Inc. on Tuesday cleared the way for shareholders to consider a slate of candidates proposed by the hedge fund to replace SandRidge’s entire board of directors.

Devon Energy Corp. is pulling out of a voluntary natural gas well emissions data gathering program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) saying the data has been “irresponsibly and inaccurately used to justify costly regulations” for unconventional drilling.