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Eastern markets used to look like the Promised Land to Rockies producers. But surging production growth from the Marcellus Shale amounts to a “keep out” sign planted along the side of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP’s (KMP) Rockies Express Pipeline (REX).

Houston-based Cameron International Corp., which manufactured the blowout preventer used for the doomed deepwater Macondo oil well, on Friday agreed to pay operator BP plc $250 million to settle claims relating to the disaster.

The West Virginia state Senate unanimously approved Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s version of a Marcellus Shale regulatory reform bill on Tuesday by a 33-0 vote.

Although it is not likely to subside in the months ahead, concern among state officials regarding proposed federal rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is creating a lot of posturing from both political and legal standpoints. North Dakota is in the middle of the messy states’ rights public debate.

Another shoe dropped Tuesday in the debate over creating national subsidies for natural gas used in vehicular transportation as the large manufacturing sector expressed strong opposition to a proposal released earlier this month in the U.S. Senate (S 1863) to expand tax credits for gas transportation infrastructure and vehicles (see Daily GPI, Nov. 17). At the same time, industrial users struck back against potential widespread U.S. exports of gas.

After three days of deliberations, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed an impact fee on oil and gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale by a 107-76 vote.

The Pennsylvania Senate approved a 3% impact fee on oil and natural gas drillers on Tuesday night, moving the Keystone State one step closer to possibly generating revenue from Marcellus Shale development. Meanwhile the state House of Representatives, after three days of tacking on amendments, is poised to pass its own competing bill Thursday (Nov. 17).

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) is scheduled to consider a set of new rules on the disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) early next month, but the debate is already picking up steam regarding proposed exemptions for trade secret chemicals.

The surge of U.S. shale gas supplies has caused a large-scale rethink on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the relationship of the U.S. gas market to that of the rest of the world. Those who used to watch U.S. shores for inbound tankers now wonder how soon and how many tankers will leave this country loaded with liquefied shale gas.