Should

Baker Hughes Inc. executives on Friday said the total U.S. rig count should fall on average by 8% this year from 2012, but with better drilling efficiencies, the onshore well count may only decline by 4% to around 35,000.

Colorado regulators and exploration and production companies (E&P) are working together to advance a new groundwater monitoring program that would monitor data at existing drilling sites and drinking water wells in one of the most heavily drilled areas of the state, Weld County.

Following key pipeline infrastructure upgrades over the past two years, MDU Resources Inc.’s Boise, ID-based Intermountain Gas Co. has told Idaho state regulators it should be able to serve the natural gas needs of the southern part of the state without any significant new capital projects during the next five years.

Former BP plc operating chief Doug Suttles on Tuesday took over as CEO and president of Encana Corp., one of the largest natural gas producers in North America.

A research report from Goldman Sachs was touted Monday as further support for why the U.S. State Department should reject the proposed northern portion of the TransCanada Corp. multi-billion-dollar 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline stretching from Alberta Canada to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

From oil sands to coal ports to liquefied natural gas (LNG) engines, Wyoming’s energy ties to Canada are strong and should get stronger, Gov. Matt Mead said Friday, previewing a week long (June 12-19) trip north of the border to expand trade relations that now account for $2 billion annually.

WPX Energy Inc. plans to deploy two more drilling rigs to the five now running in Western Colorado’s Piceance Basin, which should add an incremental 1.9 Bcfe in natural gas-weighted output through the rest of this year, the Tulsa operator said Wednesday.

Sanchez Energy Corp. has revised its spending and operations guidance following the closing of the acquisition of South Texas assets from Hess Corp.

An MDU Resources Group Inc. subsidiary on Thursday announced a natural gas pipeline project that would stretch across the Bakken Shale from western North Dakota to western Minnesota, where it would connect with Viking Gas Transmission Co.’s gas system.