Totaled

Officials with EV Energy Partners LP (EVEP) say the company is still looking to sell thousands of wet gas acres in the Utica Shale and is looking for one or more joint venture (JV) partners in the play to develop the volatile oil window.

Building midstream infrastructure in the Marcellus Shale to keep up with growing natural gas volumes was a challenge in the first quarter, MarkWest Energy Partners LP CEO Frank Semple said Thursday.

Poland on Wednesday suffered a double dose of bad news regarding its prospective shale plays after Marathon Oil Corp. and Talisman Energy Inc. issued separate statements indicating that they were pulling out of the country.

Data just coming in from 2011 shows that investment in U.S. shale oil and gas drilling nearly doubled over 2010 levels, which vaulted shale plays to account for nearly one-quarter of all wells drilled in the United States, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API).

The Bakken Shale, Hess Corp.’s “principal engine of growth.” averaged 65,000 boe/d in the first three months of this year, an increase of 55% from a year ago, the CEO told investors on Wednesday.

With production growing 39% in the Ardmore Basin’s Woodford Shale and a 75% increase in Bakken output, ExxonMobil Corp. plans to forge ahead with liquids and crude oil unconventional opportunities in North America, and keep its substantial natural gas prospects for better days, the investor relations chief said Thursday.

U.S. natural gas production was 2.56 Tcf in December and totaled 29.77 Tcf in 2012, the seventh consecutive year-over-year increase, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Monthly Energy Review for March.

U.S. natural gas production was 2.56 Tcf in December and totaled 29.77 Tcf in 2012, the seventh consecutive year-over-year increase, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Monthly Energy Review for March.

Natural gas spot prices, which averaged $2.75/MMBtu at the Henry Hub last year and $3.33 last month, are expected to climb to an average of $3.41 this year and $3.63 in 2014, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).