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These days with no end to decade-low gas prices in sight, Newfield Exploration Co. CEO Lee Boothby can’t wait to be in charge of an oil-weighted production company, and it’s going to happen soon, he said Wednesday. Newfield has put down the dry gas drillbit and is focusing intently on oil and liquids-rich plays.

Nova Scotia said it will extend its review of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) until mid-2014, enacting a moratorium on the practice for at least another two years.

While over recent months the Marcellus and Utica shales have attracted most of the attention focused on shale gas supplies, the southeastern United States — where the shale boom hit earlier — is still dealing with the consequences of shifting supplies, according to a report by LCI Energy Insight and Energy Ventures Analysis.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been conducting inspections of natural gas development in Washington County, PA, to make sure it complies with federal environmental laws.

Water reclamation services firm STW Resources Holding Corp. is planning pilot projects in the Permian Basin of West Texas to process produced oilfield water. The Midland, TX-based firm said its mobile processing unit will handle up to 500 barrels of water per day for up to 10 days per site. Some of the processed water could be used for hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

The Marcellus Shale is the eastern United States’ new natural gas supply source of choice, and Williams is in the process of developing a new pipeline to connect supply with market via Williams’ existing Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco).

Two small earthquakes in northwest England that occurred earlier this year at some natural gas drilling sites likely were caused by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), according to a report issued on Wednesday by UK-based Cuadrilla Resources Ltd.

CONSOL Energy Inc.’s Appalachian-based natural gas division produced a record 40.4 Bcf in 3Q2011, or nearly 13% more, than the 35.8 Bcf produced in the year-ago period, the company reported last week. Separately, Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. also is seeing strong results in the Marcellus Shale but said gas sales have been constrained because of “volume limitations” in some midstream infrastructure.

A dairy company with an oil and gas lease has filed a lawsuit against the Town of Middlefield, NY, accusing the municipality of overstepping its authority by enacting a ban on oil and gas operations.