Where

Calgary-based Encana Corp. and Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. are stirring up interest in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, where they are working separately with area drillers to explore in the Mancos Shale.

It’s no exaggeration that the shale gas boom has “momentous” implications and it is “revolutionary” in an historic perspective, according to ExxonMobil Corp.’s Paul Greenwood, who spoke Tuesday at the LDC Gas Forum Midcontinent meeting in Chicago.

Houston midstream operator Eagle Rock Energy Partners LP on Friday agreed to pay BP America Production Co. $227.5 million in cash for the BP Panhandle System, which includes two natural gas processing plants and a 2,500-mile gas gathering pipeline system. Eagle Rock also would take over BP’s gas processing in the area under a 20-year agreement.

Residents of Pittsburgh and the 32-county area surrounding it believe drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale is both an economic opportunity for the region and a potential environmental and public health threat, according to the results of a recent survey conducted by PittsburghToday and the staff of the University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research.

British Columbia (BC) Premier Christy Clark trekked north to see new gas processing and pipeline facilities start work in the resource-rich region where Canada’s western-most province meets the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Crestwood Midstream Partners LP late Monday agreed to pay $90 million to buy some of Devon Energy Corp.’s midstream assets in the Barnett Shale and to process the producer’s natural gas output from 20,500 dedicated acres, now estimated at 95 MMcf/d, over a 20-year period.

The physical market ticked higher in most regions of the country on Wednesday except for much of the Northeast, where forecasts of cooler temperatures prompted drops from a few pennies to more than 80 cents. Gulf and California locations were firm.

Using Colorado as its example, a Boulder, CO-based nonprofit law and conservation group, added its two cents to the growing list of advocate-sponsored studies of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), concluding there are definite impacts on water supplies and the communities they serve from the widespread use of the oil/gas drilling technology.

In a state where water historically has dominated the energy discussion, there is more talk of oil and natural gas development, following the state’s adoption of new rules and regulations governing the expected increase in exploration and production (E&P) activity.