Hydraulic fracturing, the drilling process that releases oil and natural gas from deep inside shale formations, has sparked a boom in the U.S. and a glut of natural gas that has driven prices to their lowest in a decade.  More »

Hydraulic fracturing, the drilling process that releases oil and natural gas from deep inside shale formations, has sparked a boom in the U.S. and a glut of natural gas that has driven prices to their lowest in a decade. While there’s been a lot of talk about exporting fracking techniques to other parts of the [...]  More »

The Obama administration on Tuesday approved a plan by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to sink more than 3,500 natural gas wells in eastern Utah, after the company agreed to environmental safeguards that aim to protect the local air and water.  More »

U.S. utilities led by Southern Co. (SO) are burning a record amount of natural gas for generating electricity without triggering a forecasted boost to the fuel’s price from near 10-year lows.  More »

Marcellus shale gas wells in Pennsylvania generated about $3.5 billion in gross revenues for drillers in 2011, along with about $1.2 billion in West Virginia, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.  More »

Wyoming’s governor persuaded the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to postpone an announcement linking hydraulic fracturing to groundwater contamination, giving state officials — whom the EPA had privately briefed on the study — time to attempt to debunk the finding before it rocked the oil and gas industry more than a month later, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.  More »

The Obama administration unveiled a proposed rule that would force companies to reveal the chemicals they use when drilling for oil and natural gas on public lands. But the long-anticipated regulation includes a major concession to oil and gas companies, by allowing those disclosures to happen after a well is drilled and the chemicals are pumped underground — not a month beforehand, as federal regulators had originally considered.  More »

Chemically treated drilling fluid can migrate through thousands of feet of rock and endanger water supplies, said a hydrologist whose research calls into question the safety of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.  More »

Some unwanted Nebraska sand has been put to use in some U.S. oil fields.  More »

Last week, we learned about plans for a new set of regulations covering natural gas production from hydraulic fracturing. And this week, the Interior Department has said that those forthcoming rules are still being defined and it’s unclear when they will be released. If it sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The U.S. oil and gas industry, [...]  More »

The operator of a northeast Ohio deep-injection well tied to earthquakes in the area has yet to receive the state clearance it says is necessary to conduct independent seismic research aimed at proving the well wasn’t the cause of the quakes.  More »

Shale production has put energy independence a step closer for North America and revolutionized the continent’s global position in fossil-fuel production, ConocoPhillips CEO James Mulva said Thursday in his final public speech as head of the corporation.  More »