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Portland, OR-based NW Natural retail residential and commercial/industrial customers will share in a $35 million one-time credit on their utility bills in June, resulting from the continuing drop in wholesale natural gas prices. The Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved credits that will average $36.58 for residential customers and will range from $714 to $20,000 for industrial customers. The utility asked the PUC to approve the credit as a way of passing along lower gas price savings accumulated from Nov. 1, 2011 through March 31. State regulators also indicated that there may be another credit stemming from lower gas costs in the second quarter. In addition, the PUC approved a separate $3.1 million credit for storage and transportation activities that will further reduce the average residential customer’s June bill by nearly $10.

One day after purchasing natural gas processing facilities and associated infrastructure in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, MarkWest Energy Partners LP said it plans to remain independent and will allocate more toward capital expenditures (capex) in 2012.

Petroleum Development Corp. (PDC) said Monday it would pay $330.6 million to acquire close to 35,000 net acres in a liquids-rich area of the Niobrara and Codell formations in Colorado from an undisclosed seller.

Commissioners in Bradford County, PA — one of Pennsylvania’s most prolific counties for unconventional natural gas drilling — joined nearly all of their contemporaries in the Marcellus Shale and voted unanimously in favor of implementing the state’s impact fee on unconventional gas drilling on Thursday.

From 2005 through 2011 the share of natural gas in the Texas power generation market declined while the use of out-of-state coal increased, causing a $7.7 billion economic loss to the Lone Star State, according to a new study. Texas is, after all, the country’s top producing state for natural gas, the study authors said, and the decline of its use in Texas runs counter to national trends.

The intent of continued research by the Department of Energy (DOE) into hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is “can we help drive the technology development forward,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate committee Thursday.

Aboriginal entrepreneurs picked up a share in Canada’s budding energy trade with Asia when the National Energy Board (NEB) granted a 20-year export license to BC LNG Export Co-operative Ltd. The permit enables the C$600-million (U.S. dollar at par) project to load up tankers with 250 MMcf/d of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a terminal on British Columbia’s (BC) north Pacific coast at Kitimat.

Aboriginal entrepreneurs picked up a share in Canada’s budding energy trade with Asia when the National Energy Board (NEB) granted a 20-year export license to BC LNG Export Co-operative Ltd. The permit enables the C$600 million project to load up tankers with 250 MMcf/d of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a terminal on British Columbia’s (BC) north Pacific coast at Kitimat.

Robust output from the nation’s shale plays and relatively mild winter weather continue to force analysts to trim their natural gas price forecasts, with Bentek Energy LLC on Tuesday saying it expects the market to set a new price floor of $1.94/Mcf this September.