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Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd. is taking a US$2.84 billion pre-tax charge against the value of dry gas assets in the Fayetteville Shale that it acquired just last year due to weak natural gas prices and oversupply.

Laying out a blueprint for how small- and medium-sized businesses can take advantage of the opportunities provided within the current U.S. natural gas development boom, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) has released the second in a series of recommended practices aimed at bolstering the Marcellus Shale region’s supply chain.

Braskem America on Wednesday agreed to take over some of the petrochemical operations at the old Sunoco Marcus Hook Industrial Complex south of Philadelphia with a $56 million infusion and another $15 million in state support that preserves more than 100 jobs and creates at least 28 more.

U.S. shale gas plays continued to make a substantial contribution to the country’s natural gas production, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Tuesday in a report that cited supply gains last month. However, a declining rig count signals that production declines are on the way, the agency said.

An estimated 4,700 gallons of hydrochloric acid (HCL) that were spilled on Wednesday at a Chief Oil & Gas LLC drilling operation in Leroy Township in Bradford County, PA, had been remediated almost entirely by Thursday, officials said.

Private hedge fund operator Third Point LLC, which is run by activist investor Daniel Loeb, listed Chesapeake Energy Corp. as one of the fund’s largest new holdings in a June exposure report to investors, according to several market followers.

Legislators in the Pennsylvania General Assembly are scrambling to put the finishing touches on a tax code bill that could potentially offer billions in a tax break to companies in exchange for investing billions in an ethane cracker and associated manufacturing facilities.

Pennsylvania regulators and industry stakeholders are pushing ahead with plans to greatly increase the use of natural gas for transportation across the state, but it will take some time before any visible signs of progress emerge, a Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) spokesman told NGI Tuesday.

United States natural gas production is expected to increase every year through 2035 thanks to increased shale development, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) complete version of the Annual Energy Outlook 2012 (AEO2012). Just as the preliminary report released in January found (see Shale Daily, Jan. 24), the EIA also believes the United States will transition from being a net importer to a net exporter of natural gas in approximately nine years.