Marcellus

It wouldn’t be a stretch for the United States to ramp up production to serve a 10 Bcf/d liquefied natural gas (LNG) export market by 2020, but whether the prospective exports would cause higher domestic natural gas prices could hinge on whether those exports are tied to Henry Hub gas or to or higher Brent crude equivalents, according to Patrick Rau, Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) director of strategy and research.

With less than two weeks left to find revenue to fill Pennsylvania’s projected $1.5 billion budget deficit, a severance tax on natural gas production is once again being discussed in earnest as lawmakers search for ways to avoid deeper spending cuts.

Pure-play Appalachian operator Rice Energy Inc. continues to scoop up land in Belmont County, OH, where all of its Utica Shale operations are centered, inking a more than $3.4 million deal Tuesday with county commissioners for another 424 gross acres.

ExxonMobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy Inc. has filed a motion with a Pennsylvania court to dismiss multiple criminal charges against it, saying that it has been unfairly targeted by state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who filed the charges last year (seeShale Daily, Sept. 12, 2013).

An increase in the fees charged for unconventional oil and gas well permits in Pennsylvania went into effect on Friday under a new flat-fee schedule that will not apply to traditional vertical wells.

Consol Energy Inc. and Noble Energy Inc. plan to form a master limited partnership (MLP) with midstream gathering assets that serve growing production from the companies’ 50/50 joint venture in the Marcellus Shale, they said Thursday.

Pennsylvania regulators and officials from Range Resources Corp. are trying to determine what, if anything, caused a large water impoundment in the southeast part of the state to leak enough brine water that high levels of chloride were detected in the soil beneath it.

EQT Corp. and a unit of NextEra Energy Inc. are offering capacity on a new pipeline project from the Marcellus and Utica shales to interconnecting pipelines that serve the Southeast. The 330-mile project is called Mountain Valley Pipeline.

An environmental group says Sunoco Logistics Partners LP is trying to circumvent local zoning ordinances in Pennsylvania by applying for an exemption with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) for its Mariner East pipeline.