Recent

For the second time this year, Newfield Exploration Co. raised its full-year production forecast based on rising output from key U.S. onshore oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) plays.

The shale development frenzy of the last couple of years has cooled dramatically in recent months as natural gas prices, and more recently crude and natural gas liquids prices, have plummeted. Out of the 13 U.S. plays for which NGI’s Shale Daily tracks unconventional rig counts, nine are showing a lower level of drilling activity than one year ago, with most of them recording a drop of 30% or more.

Houston-based Dynegy Inc.’s recent filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and planned merger with its Dynegy Holdings LLC (DH) unit, which was already in bankruptcy, has drawn differing reactions from the two major credit rating agencies, Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s Rating Services (S&P).

A sharp drop in natural gas prices and recent weakness in oil prices haven’t stalled too much U.S. exploration and production (E&P) spending, which is expected to jump by 9.6% to $143 billion this year, according to 239 domestic producers surveyed by Dahlman Rose & Co.

A recent legal settlement may have cast further uncertainty on a long-standing proposal for the Palomar natural gas pipeline to bring Rockies gas west of the Cascade Mountains into Pacific Northwest population centers. Backers of the scaled-down 220-mile, 36-inch diameter line, say it is still alive but “on hold.” However, without new commercial commitments for the pipeline, at least one of the backers said the project won’t go forward.

A sharp drop in natural gas prices and recent weakness in oil prices hasn’t stalled too much U.S. exploration and production (E&P) spending, which is expected to jump by 9.6% to $143 billion this year, according to 239 domestic producers surveyed by Dahlman Rose & Co.

A recent legal settlement may have cast further uncertainty on a long-standing proposal for the Palomar natural gas pipeline to bring Rockies gas west of the Cascade Mountains into Pacific Northwest population centers.

Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Michael Krancer said a recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) was “incorrect and inapplicable to Pennsylvania in many respects,” and urged the environmental group to reconsider its labeling of natural gas as a “dirty fossil fuel.”

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and White House to clarify language in a recent executive order creating an interagency working group on hydraulic fracturing (fracking).