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Members of a key advisory panel in New York that would someday govern hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state say they won’t meet their Nov. 1 deadline because they need more time to gather critical information and budget requests from state agencies.

Energy experts predict that natural gas will surpass coal and become the second most widely used fossil fuel on Earth by 2030, but said challenges remain for the industry to make that a reality.

In a day-long hearing Thursday before New York legislators that was at times slowed by audience jeers and shouting, regulators and business leaders urged the state to support expanding natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale.

Energy experts predict that natural gas will surpass coal and become the second most widely used fossil fuel on Earth by 2030, but said challenges remain for the industry to make that a reality.

Cheniere Energy Partners LP said it expects to net about $60 million in public offerings, some of which would be used to fund development costs of its proposed addition of liquefaction capacity to the Sabine Pass LNG (liquefied natural gas) import terminal in Cameron Parish, LA. However, in order to advance the project still needs contracted customers.

In Mexico there is no debate about shale gas having potential, but there is an ongoing discussion in the federal government concerning whether to focus on finding out exactly what that potential might be. A relatively new government body, the National Commission for Hydrocarbons (CNH), is pushing other parts of the federal government to pursue a more diversified energy strategy.

Disclosure of the chemicals used for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) well stimulation is becoming the law of the land in the energy-rich Ark-La-Tex region, a natural gas breadbasket for the country. However, in environmentally conscious California legislation to require disclosure has stumbled.

SM Energy Co. has agreed to sell its Marcellus Shale assets in Pennsylvania, including its entire 42,000-acre leasehold and associated pipeline assets in McKean and Potter counties, to a subsidiary of Houston-based Endeavour International Corp. for approximately $80 million, the companies said Monday.

In a still-depressed market for merchant power, Calpine Corp. on Tuesday used the dedication of a new natural gas-fired power plant in the PJM market as a signal that competitive power markets are working and independent generation plant developers will continue to build more gas-fired plants.