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Chesapeake Energy Corp., the most prolific driller and the second largest natural gas producer in the United States, wrote down $2 billion in natural gas reserves in 3Q2012, which wiped out the equivalent of 4.9 Tcf of its reserves and triggered the company’s biggest net loss in three years.

WPX Energy Inc. announced a net loss of $64 million for 3Q2012 on Thursday, but it also reported significant growth in oil production in the Bakken Shale and tripled natural gas production in the Marcellus.

The United States has experienced a “transformational shift in the perceived role of natural gas,” as an energy source that 10 years ago was perceived by some as unreliable and scarce, to one that now is recognized as an “essential component of a clean and secure energy portfolio,” providing an opportunity to satisfy new demand at “affordable” prices into the future, the American Gas Association (AGA) said last week.

The United States has experienced a “transformational shift in the perceived role of natural gas,” as an energy source that 10 years ago was perceived by some as unreliable and scarce, to one that now is recognized as an “essential component of a clean and secure energy portfolio,” providing an opportunity to satisfy new demand at “affordable” prices into the future, the American Gas Association (AGA) said Wednesday.

The United States is already significantly “energy independent” in most sectors, with transportation fuels being the notable exception, according to a Deloitte study. Here, alternative fuels, including natural gas, can bolster U.S. energy security, which is a more attainable goal than independence, the firm said.

A Maryland circuit court judge listened to lawyers for Dominion Resources Inc. and two environmental groups on Monday, the opening salvo in lawsuit over a proposed natural gas liquefaction facility, but ultimately decided to take the case under advisement.

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). And the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season may already be winding down, WSI said.

With shale gas the United States has an abundant natural resource that wasn’t on the industrial or economic development radar screen a mere five years ago. In other words, “a competitive edge is coming back to America,” Dow Chemical Co.’s Brian Ames told a Houston audience last week.

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.