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A Dow Chemical Co. executive said he believes the chemical industry will need several additional billion cubic feet per day of natural gas in as little as two-years’ time, when a long list of petrochemical plant projects begin to come online. It’s a demand that should be easy to meet, he said, as long as the United States hasn’t given away its competitive advantage in the marketplace — a gift from shale gas — through the undisciplined export of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. and S.H. Bell Co. are planning a new silica sand storage facility in East Liverpool, OH, to support growing demand from oil and natural gas customers in the Marcellus and Utica shales, the companies said.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said the nation set several new records for natural gas, including gross withdrawals, the number of producing wells, domestic consumption, exports and dry, marketed and onshore production.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is warning Pittsburgh officials that several portions of the city’s drilling ordinance are incompatible with Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law.

Portland General Electric Co. (PGE) said Monday that its recent request for proposals (RFP) for power generating resources, including several hundred megawatts of natural gas-fired baseload power, has resulted in 32 bids from 15 different projects, totaling more than 9,000 MW. Oregon state regulators are scheduled to discuss the draft RFP at a public meeting Sept. 25.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals last week rejected by 2-1 an appeal by Utah producers and several counties to uphold an Obama administration decision nearly four years ago to withdraw 77 oil and natural gas leases that had been sold at the end of the George W. Bush administration.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly and lawyers representing several state agencies have filed briefs with the state Supreme Court, arguing that an appellate court erred when it said portions of Act 13, the state’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, were unconstitutional.

A 10-inch diameter natural gas gathering pipeline owned by Copano Energy LLC ruptured several miles north of Alice, TX, Thursday afternoon. There were no injuries or damage to property in the rural area except for a small grass fire, Copano spokesman Craig Brown told NGI. The pipeline was moving less than 5,000 Mcf/d of gas at the time at less than 500 psi operating pressure. A small amount of production from the field being served by the line is shut in. An investigation is to be conducted into the cause of the explosion, Brown said. Alice is 239 miles southwest of Houston.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is preparing to host several half-day seminars across the state this fall to educate parties on applying for $20 million in grants toward the purchase of natural gas vehicles (NGV) or the conversion of eligible vehicles to natural gas.