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ExxonMobil Corp., the No. 1 natural gas producer in the United States, continues to reign supreme as the world’s top energy enterprise, and it has regained its footing as the largest domestic publicly traded entity.

The Marcellus and Utica shales aren’t drawing near the attention they have been, according to a review of 4Q2012 mergers and transactions (M&A) in the United States by PwC US.

ExxonMobil Corp., the No. 1 natural gas producer in the United States, continues to reign supreme as the world’s top energy enterprise, and it has regained its footing as the largest domestic publicly traded entity.

Hess Corp. said Monday it plans to sell its oil terminal network in the United States and close its refinery at Port Reading, NJ, part of its strategy to completely exit the refining business and transform into an exploration and production (E&P) company focused on unconventional assets.

WPX Energy Inc. said its first horizontal test well targeting the Niobrara formation in western Colorado’s Piceance Basin has produced encouraging results, with the potential of more than doubling its proved, probable and possible (3P) reserves.

Canada’s BNK Petroleum Inc. announced Sunday that its subsidiary in the United States has so far seen “very encouraging results” from a test well in southern Oklahoma’s Tishomingo field, in the Ardmore Basin of the Woodford Shale.

A Pennsylvania driller has bought more than 56,000 acres of leasehold, hundreds of producing natural gas wells and nearly 200 miles of natural gas pipeline and other infrastructure in New York state from a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corp. It said it plans to drill vertical wells on the acquisition acreage this year.

After hitting a low point five years ago, associated gas is projected to grow to more than 12 Bcf/d, or about 15% of the North American natural gas supplies in 2020, according to a report released Tuesday by Canadian-based Ziff Energy.

Despite a decided turn toward more winter-like weather in a number of regions of the United States on Monday, the expected decrease in natural gas demand tied to the Christmas Holiday proved to be enough to send nearly all pricing points lower, with a majority of the declines recorded across the country coming in at more than a dime.