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Producers in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas are having to take the bad with the good. The good: abundant oil and liquids-rich gas production in an era of very low dry gas prices. The bad: a dearth of infrastructure to handle the play’s robust output.

Producers in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas are having to take the bad with the good. The good: abundant oil and liquids-rich gas production in an era of very low dry gas prices. The bad: a dearth of infrastructure to handle the play’s robust output.

Shell Pipeline Co. LP received a “very encouraging response” in a nonbinding open season for capacity on its proposed Houma, LA, to Houston (Ho-Ho) oil pipeline system reversal, which would take advantage of growing oil shale production, the company said Thursday.

For nearly two straight years U.S. natural gas output has climbed almost continuously — and 2012 could see even stronger growth, according to the energy team at Raymond James & Associates Inc.

Exploration and production companies have heeded the call to improve transparency and institute better practices, but there’s more to do to address the concerns of stakeholders in the shale plays, a Range Resources Corp. executive said last week.

A Pennsylvania township has filed lawsuit against its county board of elections, arguing that a referendum put forth by an environmental group that would ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the township violates several state laws and could expose the municipality to legal action by the industry and others.

On the heels of a mega Marcellus Shale partnership agreement in August, CONSOL Energy Inc. on Wednesday announced that Hess Corp. would become its partner on half of its nearly 200,000 acres in the prospective Utica Shale in eastern Ohio.

Because of new drilling techniques that allow operators to do more with less, federal officials in Colorado have more than doubled their initial estimate on the number of natural gas wells that could be drilled in the Gothic Shale in the Paradox Basin of southwestern Colorado.

A “consensus playbook” is calling for the U.S. natural gas supply curve to flatten over the coming months, but improved drilling and completion technology and a backlog of wells waiting for pipeline connections in the onshore shale plays indicate that growth won’t stall anytime soon, analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said Monday.