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A series of legislative proposals that would allow hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and enact several other changes to North Carolina’s energy policies within two years have cleared an important hurdle and could come to a vote this summer.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said development of the Marcellus Shale was “good for the entire state” but conceded that several challenges lay ahead, in part because natural gas prices remain less than $3/Mcf.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon said Monday he was confident that the company would complete several planned property sales this year to plug a funding gap estimated at $10 billion.

There are billions of dollars worth of assets on the market and “plenty of money” available to Dallas-based Exco Resources Inc. as it pursues several potential acquisitions in the gas market, Exco Resources Inc. CEO Doug Miller said during a conference call with analysts Wednesday.

An analysis of resources in 171 geologic provinces, including Canada and Mexico and several Arctic provinces — but excluding the United States — found that the world holds an estimated 5,606 Tcf of undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional natural gas, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report.

Russia’s OAO Rosneft will put its boots and drilling crews on the ground in the United States and Canada through several partnership agreements completed with ExxonMobil Corp. on Monday.

Davy Jones, considered one of the biggest natural gas discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico’s shallow waters, faces several weeks of delay before commercial production begins after operator McMoRan Exploration Co. reported that a blockage has prevented a measurable flow rate in the first well.

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said Friday the state has settled a seven-year legal battle with several oil and gas producers over Point Thomson leases. All parties have agreed to enter into a complex settlement agreement to develop the huge natural gas field.

Several companies hope one day to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from North America, but Wood Mackenzie energy analysts last week warned that the prospects continue to remain far from certain.