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In a year’s time, production from shale plays has gone from 6% of Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc.’s North American gas production to 36%, the company said Tuesday.

A judge in Tarrant County, TX, has dismissed four lawsuits against XTO Energy in which plaintiffs alleged that XTO, now a unit of ExxonMobil Corp., shortchanged them in lease payments.

Pipeline projects in the planning stages by Equitrans L.P. and Dominion Transmission Inc. would carry as much as 1.4 Bcf/d of Marcellus Shale and other Appalachian production out of northern West Virginia to major connections in southwestern Pennsylvania by late 2012.

Algonquin Gas Transmission (AGT) will be conducting Department of Transportation-mandated pipeline investigations on its G-System through gas day May 22. During these investigations AGT will be required to lower its operating pressure on the G-system to 575 psig. The pipeline said customers/point operators should be aware of the impact of nonratable takes from the system, which may cause delivery pressures to reach lower than desired levels. Accordingly, AGT requests that customers/point operators in this region minimize nonratable take patterns during this outage.

President Obama last week called on Congress to provide incentives for consumers who retrofit their homes to become more energy efficient, “which we know creates jobs, saves money for families and reduces the pollution that threatens our environment.” One proposal would expand “select” initiatives in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to promote energy efficiency and clean energy jobs that have been proven “to be particularly popular and effective.”

Inergy LP’s Inergy Midstream LLC is conducting two nonbinding open seasons, one for its Marc I Hub Line Project and the second for its North-South Project, through Aug. 21.

Long-term growth in energy demand cannot be reversed, but volatility in oil and gas prices could dampen future supplies and presents one of the “main challenges” facing the energy industry, BP plc CEO Tony Hayward said last week.

In times of economic health and strong commodity prices, the returns of regulated assets can be something of a bore. These days, though, they’re at least one thing to smile about. Such is the case at National Fuel Gas Co. where a charge for a ceiling test writedown on producing properties slashed profits, but utility and pipeline results improved during the first quarter of the company’s fiscal 2009.

Several maintenance projects will cause these reductions in El Paso’s North Mainline capacity (from a base of 2,276 MMcf/d) through the end of the month: Oct. 20, 91 MMcf/d; Oct. 21, 20 MMcf/d; Oct. 22-24, 71 MMcf/d; Oct. 25-26, 104 MMcf/d; Oct. 27-28, 348 MMcf/d; Oct. 29, 245 MMcf/d; and Oct. 30-31, 270 MMcf/d. See the bulletin board for details of the maintenance.