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When natural gas prices are $3.00/Mcf, Southwestern Energy Co. has 1,200-1,500 well locations to drill in the Fayetteville Shale, but “in today’s price environment, that changes substantially,” CFO Robert Craig Owen said last Wednesday in Austin, TX.

When natural gas prices are $3, Southwestern Energy Co. has 1,200-1,500 well locations to drill in the Fayetteville Shale, but “in today’s price environment, that changes substantially,” CFO Robert Craig Owen said Wednesday in Austin, TX.

Building midstream infrastructure in the Marcellus Shale to keep up with growing natural gas volumes was a challenge in the first quarter, MarkWest Energy Partners LP CEO Frank Semple said Thursday.

Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has powered the biggest increase since the 1970s in Alberta oil production from flowing wells outside the northern bitumen sands belt, says the provincial Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB).

HollyFrontier Corp. and Holly Energy Partners LP are collaborating to construct a rail facility that will enable crude oil loading and unloading near HollyFrontier’s Artesia and/or Lovington, NM, refining facilities. The rail project, which will be connected to Holly Energy’s crude oil pipeline system in southeastern New Mexico, will have an initial capacity of up to 70,000 b/d and will enable access to a variety of crude oil types including West Texas Intermediate, West Texas Sour and Western Canadian Select. The project will provide additional crude oil takeaway options for producers as crude production in the region continues to grow, and an expanded set of crude oil sourcing options for HollyFrontier. Completion is expected by early 2014.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) and BP North America have struck a long-term, fee-based agreement supporting an additional 50,000 b/d of throughput capacity at a condensate processing facility KMP is constructing on the Houston Ship Channel.

Overall oil production in Texas declined somewhat in January from December, according to preliminary January production figures from the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC). But the Eagle Ford Shale kept on pumping, with leading Eagle Ford counties charting substantial oil production increases from year-ago levels.

Attorneys for energy companies and landowners looking to advance shale development in New York State said Thursday morning’s proceedings in state appellate court went well and they expect to hear rulings on two key cases in six to eight weeks, or by mid-May.

If/when the United States begins exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG), it could take decades for the number of outbound cargoes to equal the number of press releases, studies and policy briefs generated by either side of the export debate. Besides powering a manufacturing/petrochemical renaissance, North American shale gas is fueling a bonfire of inanities, at least some would say.