Utica Shale

More than one year after creating a subcommittee to study hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and develop a consensus for best practices, ASTM International has proposed a new standard for data management and reporting that would cover oil and gas operations in shale plays.

Jobs at the core of Ohio’s growing shale industry, including those in pipeline construction and well drilling, grew nearly 18% and paid an average wage of more than $76,000 during the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a quarterly report by the state’s Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS).

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has approved a Sunoco Pipeline LP request to abandon a portion of its petroleum products pipeline transportation service in the state, moving Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s plans for the Mariner East pipeline project one step closer to fruition.

Consol Energy Inc. COO Randy Albert is the new chairman of the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), taking the helm from David Spigelmyer until the current term ends in late November, MSC spokesman Travis Windle toldNGI’s Shale Daily.

Spectra Energy Transmission’s Texas Eastern Transmission announced an expansion to serve industrial markets in South Louisiana by Spring 2015 with shale gas supplies from multiple basins. An open season runs through Sept. 27.

Liquids-rich and oil plays have clearly won the hearts and dollars of North American producers. The Eagle Ford and Bakken shales are stars now, but several others are poised to join or possibly eclipse them, according to a recent note by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P).

Blue Racer Midstream LLC, designed to provide expanded services over the next three years in the Utica and Marcellus shales, on Thursday secured an initial five-year, $800 million credit facility that could be expanded to $1 billion.

Southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia have formed an “integrated region” for natural gas drilling, an area where well drilling increasingly has been focused in the Appalachian Basin, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Although President Obama and the participants in a town hall meeting at Binghamton University in New York on Friday devoted most of their discourse to education, energy was mentioned once, with the president acknowledging the rise of natural gas but calling for further investment in alternative energy not derived from fossil fuels.