Industry experts believe that the amount of natural gas produced from shale will rise steadily in the United States. That increase will keep prices low and attract new customers to natural gas. More in an article on the Houston Chronicle website.

The North Carolina Geological Survey has published Information Circular 36: Natural Gas and Oil in North Carolina. “This report provides an overview of natural gas and oil potential in North Carolina, how natural gas and oil forms, recent interest in both onshore and off-shore resources, and a summary of the current permit requirements and regulations.” Quoted from the report.

Pioneer Natural Resources reports that one of their wells in the Eagle Ford shale of Texas had an initial production rate of 17 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. A fantastic yield for a shale well.   More in a Reuters article.

An article at MarketWatch reports that BP is in talks with Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation) with the hope of reaching an agreement for cooperative ventures in developing extensive natural gas shales in China.

An article in the New York Times reports that members of the House Energy and Commerce panel will examine Exxon Mobil’s plans to acquire significant acreage in the Marcellus, Haynesville and Barnett gas shale plays as part of a deal with XTO Energy. Exxon is concerned about future regulations that will limit the use of hydraulic fracturing to develop these assets.

Democrats in the California Assembly’s Revenue and Taxation Committee passed a bill by a party-line vote that will impose a new severance tax on oil and natural gas producers in that state.  More at the Sacramento Bee website.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality conduced toxic vapor tests to detect hazardous emissions from natural gas drilling sites in the Fort Worth area. None of the 126 sites tested had contaminant levels that exceeded regulatory standards.  More in a Star-Telegram article.

The North Carolina Geological Survey published “Shale Gas Potential in Triassic Strata of the Deep River Basin, Lee and Chatham Counties, North Carolina with pipeline and infrastructure data” in response to increasing interest in natural gas shales. Also available is a .pdf file on the same subject adapted from a presentation given by Jeffrey Reid and Kenneth Taylor at the 2009 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Evansville, Indiana, September 20-22, 200

If you have questions about mineral rights they can be posted at a new and growing forum at MineralRightsForum.com. They have active discussions for natural gas shales, oil and gas leasing and much more.

Some people believe that the state of New York is implementing regulatory standards for natural gas drilling that are strict enough to significantly reduce or delay the development of the Marcellus Shale in that state.  More at the Oil and Gas Journal website.

A short segment in EIA’s Natural Gas Weekly Update explains how rig counts lag changes in the price of natural gas by several weeks. The good news for now is that rig counts have been generally rising for the past few months.

Project Rulison was an experiment done in 1969 to determine if an underground atomic blast would stimulate natural gas production. Today there are concerns because Nobel Energy Production plans to drill gas wells near the test site south of Rifle, Colorado.  More in an article on the Denver Post website.