A group of Pennsylvania landowners are fighting an attempt to acquire their mineral rights through eminent domain for a natural gas storage field. They say that the $400 per acre being offered is a lot less than they could get by leasing the same property to Marcellus Shale landmen. More in the Lebanon Daily News.

Linn Energy is a small company by energy sector standards but they are doing well by following a conservative path. This summer in the midst of the natural gas excitement they sold their Marcellus Shale properties for a tidy profit – they thought the wells would be too expensive to drill. More at Barrons.

This Denton Record-Chronicle article recounts in some detail the challenges and disappointments faced by a family in Argyle, Texas, living with an unwanted natural gas well operating in the lot immediately behind their house.

After several years of steady increases in Barnett Shale production and income the trend might be about to change. Fewer wells are being drilled and lower gas prices are being paid. This article at istockanalyst.com looks at the future of the Barnett Shale natural gas play.

Thousands off farmers in Pennsylvania entered a covenant with the state several years ago with a promise that they would devote their land exclusively to agricultural use.  Now some of those farmers have entered leases for Marcellus Shale gas drilling and are hit with thousands of dollars in penalties.  More at the Daily Review.

Here is an article in the Globe Investor that tells a story about how lumber workers and businesses in British Columbia are jumping to serve the natural gas business as drilling activity in the Horn River and Montney plays heats up.

Petrohawk announced that they have three Haynesville Shale natural gas wells yielding at a combined rate of 73 Mmcfe/d and one of those wells is the highest in the company’s history at 28.2 Mmcfe/d on a 30/64″ choke with 7,100# flowing casing pressure.  The record well is located in the Red River Parish of Louisiana.  The other two are in the Bossier Parish.   See the Petrohawk news release for more information.

Yukon Pacific had plans to build a natural gas pipeline from North Slope gas fields to a location near Valdez where the gas would be chilled into LNG.  The state yanked their claim to the right of way because they didn’t make reasonable progress.  More at the Anchorage Daily News.

Xinjiang Guanghui Stone Corp and Kazakhstan’s Tarbagatay Munay now have a plan to build an LNG plant in the Xinjiang area of China.  This is an inland plant and the plan is to transport the gas by truck!  More at Reuters.com.

A news report in the Times Leader says that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is running chemical analyses of the wastewater produced by Marcellus Shale hydraulic fracturing jobs.  Drillers have declined to reveal the ingredients used in these waters.

Natural gas production in the United States increased in both 2007 and 2008 but a break in this trend is expected for 2009. Low prices and tight credit markets are blamed for the expected drop. More at Zacks Investment Research.

Canadian Spirit Resources has drilled two wells into the Montney Formation in the Farrel Creek area of British Columbia.  The wells penetrated multiple zones with potential for natural gas production.  Horizontal sections on the wells were not completed.  More at Rigzone.com.

Several new liquefied natural gas projects in several areas of the world will yield a large increase in global LNG production capacity . There could be more LNG than the market can currently absorb – especially with the current economic downturn. More at the Oil and Gas Journal.

An article at RigZone.com explores a falling U.S. rig count considering the amazing fall of oil prices and the growth of activity in natural gas plays in several parts of the country.

An Associated Press article contains concerns about drilling for Marcellus Shale natural gas in the New York City watershed expressed by Steven Lawitts, acting commissioner of New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection and Albert Appleton, former commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.