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Devon Energy Corp.’s North American onshore oil production jumped year/year 20% in 2012 as it continued to makeover its natural gas-weighted portfolio to higher margin liquids and oil targets, but more still needs to be done to squeeze the value of its portfolio, CEO John Richels said Wednesday. Oil appears to be the answer, and dry natural gas development still is off the table.

Although many of its nations have so far spurned their own shale development, European chemical and energy service companies are benefiting from the U.S. shale gas development and the resulting low natural gas prices on this side of the Pond, according to an American Chemistry Council (ACC) economist.

Calgary-based Keyera Corp. is planning a $210 million enhancement project to recover ethane and other natural gas liquids from the raw gas stream at the Rimbey gas plant in the Hoadley region of central Alberta. The project would include installing a 400 MMcf/d turbo expander unit and constructing a 34 kilometer, six-inch diameter ethane pipeline to connect to the Alberta Ethane Gathering System. The enhancements would allow Keyera to recover more than 90% of the ethane at the plant. Upon completion of the project, Keyera expects to extract up to 20,000 b/d of ethane through the turbo expander unit, which would be sold to a large consumer in Alberta under a long term sales agreement. The company has also secured a long-term, fee-for-service processing agreement and is in discussions with other producers interested in contracting processing capacity at the plant. Subject to regulatory approvals, construction of the expansion is anticipated to begin in 4Q2012, with start-up expected in late 2014.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper responded Thursday to criticism from local elected officials in his state who are upset over his government taking the city of Longmont, CO, to court over its oil and natural gas drilling rules. Legal action was what Hickenlooper called a “last resort” in a letter he sent to various local officials considering similar local drilling rules.

The Marcellus and Eagle Ford shales have exactly what the U.S. gas market doesn’t need right now: more gas on the way, according to natural gas analysts at Barclays Capital. They titled their latest note — an analysis of the effects of upcoming pipeline debottlenecking in the two plays — “Unleashing a Caged Monster.”

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead warned his state agencies to prepare for making 8% cuts in their budgets in response to a dwindling revenue stream due to inordinately low natural gas prices. The average expected gas prices since the new budget was calculated in January have plummeted to below $2/MMcf, compared to $3.25/MMcf.

When it takes 75,000-100,000 bbl of water to hydraulically fracture (frack) a shale well, “the oil and gas industry is effectively a water industry and delivers oil and gas as a byproduct…so welcome to the water industry,” an environmental services executive told a Houston energy audience Wednesday.

A “consensus playbook” is calling for the U.S. natural gas supply curve to flatten over the coming months, but improved drilling and completion technology and a backlog of wells waiting for pipeline connections in the onshore shale plays indicate that growth won’t stall anytime soon, analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said Monday.

Researchers from Duke University plan to return to Pennsylvania next week to conduct additional testing of residential water wells in the northeastern part of the state, including wells that are not currently near any Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling.