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Plaintiffs suing two municipalities in New York State for enacting bans on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) will soon have their day in court. Meanwhile, the city of Binghamton, which had its day in court — and lost — is considering an appeal.

Ryckman Creek Resources LLC, a unit of Peregrine Midstream Partners LLC, is holding a nonbinding open season through Nov. 2 for up to 8 Bcf of firm, high-deliverability, multi-cycle gas storage capacity available April 1 at the company’s new facility in Uinta County, WY, near the Opal Hub (see Daily GPI, Aug. 22). Ryckman Creek has interconnections with five interstate pipelines, all of which are connected to the Opal Hub. Combined meter capacity is in excess of 1 Bcf/d. For information, visit www.peregrinempllc.com or contact Jeff Foutch, jhfoutch@peregrinempllc.com, (713) 974-5606; Don Wash, dwash@peregrinempllc.com, (713) 750-9939; or Chuck Sawyer, csawyer@peregrinempllc.com, (720) 359-1589.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) is considering three new setback zones for drilling based on the distance from a wellhead or production facility to the nearest occupied building.

U.S. Ethane presents a “wall of worry” to gas producers and processors (which fear margin collapse), pipelines (which fret over volumes) and consumers (which fear scarcity and high prices), an industry analyst said in Houston Monday. There is always something to worry about, but there’s always something on which to disagree, too.

Oneok Partners LP is holding an open season through Nov. 20 for its Bakken Crude Express Pipeline, a proposed 1,300-mile pipeline with capacity to transport 200,000 b/d of light-sweet crude oil from multiple points in the Williston Basin’s Bakken Shale in North Dakota and Montana to the crude oil market hub in Cushing, OK (see Shale Daily, April 10). Construction is expected to begin in early 2014 and be completed by mid-2015. For information, visit the project website or contact Lisa Nishimuta at (918) 588-7730, lisa.nishimuta@oneok.com; or Tim King at (918) 732-1339, tim.king@oneok.com.

Much of the eastern United States will experience generally mild temperatures through the end of the year despite an El Nino event in the tropical Pacific Ocean, as cooling waters in the more northern Pacific begin to exert their influence on North American weather patterns, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI). The western third of the country and parts of the Southeast will average cooler than normal over the next three months, WSI said.

John Pinkerton, executive chairman of Range Resources Corp., said his company’s decision in 2010 to be the first to voluntarily disclose the contents of the chemicals it uses in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) was the right call, and one that now has received nearly unanimous industry support.

Moving natural gas from Western Canada and the Bakken Shale through new and existing pipelines will keep Calgary-based Alliance Pipeline LP as busy as it has ever been in its 12-year history. FERC last Thursday approved the pipeline’s proposal to build a lateral out of the Bakken Shale to Alliance’s mainline, allowing producers to meet the growing gas demand in Chicago.

If there is a “bet-the-farm” opportunity in natural gas infrastructure, it lies in the potential production growth in the Utica and Marcellus shale formations, according to Mark McGettrick, CFO of Dominion Resources in Virginia.