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Texas will provide $1 million to close a deal with Ascend Performance Materials Texas Inc. to build a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) facility near Houston, Gov. Rick Perry said.

In the first paragraph of a story published Feb. 26, “EIA: Gas Production Increase Continued Through November” (see Daily GPI, Feb. 26), the trend of natural gas production in the United States last year was incorrectly stated. The first paragraph should read: Production continued its steady increase through November, totaling 27.22 Tcf for the first 11 months of 2012, compared with 25.94 Tcf during the same period in 2011 and 24.42 Tcf in 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Monthly Energy Review for February. NGI regrets the error.

Most exploration and production (E&P) executives believe shale natural gas prices have bottomed out, with 87% predicting that prices will stay the same or increase over the next two years, according to a survey of 357 North American executives.

NET Midstream unit NET Mexico Pipeline LP plans to build a 124-mile, 42-inch diameter natural gas pipeline to carry gas produced in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas to the Texas-Mexico border.

Aiming to expand its international unconventional resource opportunities, Houston-based exploration and production independent ConocoPhillips said Wednesday it has entered into a set of agreements with PetroChina Co. Ltd., under which PetroChina will acquire an interest in two Western Australia exploration assets and establish a joint study agreement (JSA) for unconventional resource development in China’s Sichuan Basin.

Fuel tanks, which are considered the most costly part of the compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle fueling system, are seeing technology breakthroughs in the United States.

By building positions in the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin, Comstock Resources Inc. has been Texas two-stepping away from nearly all dry gas production to oil, but the dance hasn’t always been graceful, as fourth quarter results show.

The promise of production from seven “exceptional” wells brought online in January in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale and continuing additions to its pipeline business paint an expanding future for National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG) in 2013, CEO Dave Smith said during a conference call with analysts.

Investor groups for the fourth year in a row are urging some of the largest natural gas and oil producers in the United States to disclose information about how the risks involved with unconventional drilling operations are managed and measured. Some explorers also have been called on to disclose fugitive emissions from natural gas transmission.