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The North American natural gas and oil rig count should average 2,400 rigs in 2012, up 5% from last year, however, producers are “drastically” shifting the mix of rigs used, Baker Hughes Inc. CFO Peter Ragauss said Tuesday.

Cash markets on average eased a penny Wednesday as Midcontinent traders noted storage buying and gas volumes were being used for electric power generation. Northeast markets were weak, but Southern California points worked higher. At the close of futures trading May was unchanged at $1.951 and June had inched lower six-tenths of one cent to $2.042. May crude oil had fallen $1.53 to $102.67/bbl.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., which has used a variety of savvy financial means to raise money for exploring and developing its vast unconventional portfolio in the United States, is preparing to launch its diverse onshore oilfield services unit through an initial public offering (IPO), a separate company that would continue to be closely tied to its main customer, the Oklahoma City-based producer.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he is prepared to fight his fellow Republicans in the General Assembly who are unenthusiastic about his plans to restructure taxes and regulations on the oil and natural gas industry.

With most new oil/gas exploration and production (E&P) moving to the more populated eastern slope of the Colorado Rockies from its traditional rural west-central focus, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) embarked last month on a three-month public service advertising campaign as part of a broader community outreach on the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). So far the campaign is raising more interest than anticipated, according to COGA, and mostly because anti-fracking groups are crying foul.

It is a matter of when, not if, additional testing will be done in Pavillion, WY, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has two test wells that turned up suspected chemicals tied to the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of natural gas wells in the area. Gov. Matt Mead’s spokesperson has confirmed that additional tests are coming, but they are still not scheduled.

As Pennsylvania prepares to put in place a unique mega-law (HB 1950) to regulate and tax its blockbuster baby, the Marcellus Shale, nobody thinks it’s perfect, but most are prepared to live with it and work to improve it.

A state official said a bill advancing in the Pennsylvania General Assembly that offers tax breaks to large businesses could also be used to help the state lure an ethane cracker and the thousands of jobs it would provide.

ConocoPhillips revealed Wednesday that in the last three months of 2011 it acquired more than 100,000 acres in North American liquids-rich shale plays, bringing its unconventional acquisitions last year to more than 500,000 acres.