Plays

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. beat its guidance and achieved record production and revenue during the second quarter of 2012, thanks in large part to new oil production from longer laterals drilled in the Eagle Ford Shale and a flatter-than-expected decline in natural gas production with new wells brought online in the Marcellus Shale.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP on Tuesday agreed to extend its natural gas liquids (NGL) gathering pipeline in northwest Pennsylvania to accommodate the start-up later this year of XTO Energy Inc.’s midstream processing plant in Butler County, PA.

North America’s burgeoning unconventional oil supplies have created “considerable investment needs” because pipelines are in the “wrong place carrying crude in the wrong direction and/or transporting the wrong products,” according to a review by Ernst & Young LLP.

Crestwood Midstream Partners LP late Monday agreed to pay $90 million to buy some of Devon Energy Corp.’s midstream assets in the Barnett Shale and to process the producer’s natural gas output from 20,500 dedicated acres, now estimated at 95 MMcf/d, over a 20-year period.

U.S. net imports of natural gas fell 25% last year in the face of pushback from ballooning domestic supplies, thanks to the output of shale plays, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

U.S. net imports of natural gas fell 25% last year in the face of pushback from ballooning domestic supplies, thanks to the output of shale plays, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

As the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale plays have shown, oil and gas wells go up long before there are enough homes for all the workers who flock to the energy patch for high-paying jobs. A study released Tuesday intends to lay out a strategy for Eagle Ford counties in South Texas to meet regional housing needs over the next 10-15 years.

Germany’s shale plays could hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, according to figures released last week by the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), a government geosciences authority.

A CenterPoint Energy Inc. subsidiary on Tuesday bulked up its East Texas and Northwest Louisiana natural gas gathering and processing business after completing two agreements worth a total of $364 million.