An article in MetalMiner explores how the recovery in land rig utilization is moving at a faster than expected rate. Although the rig count is still significantly below the 2008 peak it is climbing at the most rapid sustained rate in more than a decade.

Some legislators in Harrisburg are trying to raise more revenue from the Marcellus Shale while others are trying to put on the brakes to reduce environmental impacts. More in an article at Philly.com.

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.

The American Petroleum Institute and PriceWaterhouseCoopers have prepared a report titled: “The Economic Impacts of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry on the U.S. Economy: Employment, Labor Income and Value Added”. It is a .pdf document.

The Energy Information Administration released a report on the potential for oil and gas development in the Arctic Ocean. That report states… “Given that the Arctic resource base is predominantly composed of natural gas and natural gas liquids, the importance of Arctic oil and natural gas resources is likely to be affected by the growing realization that shale beds in existing petroleum provinces around the world might be capable of producing 5,000 to 16,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.47 This potentially large shale gas resource could significantly defer the future development of Arctic natural gas resources.”

The Alabama Geological Survey has a summary publication titled “An Overview of the Floyd Shale & Chattanooga Shale Gas Play in Alabama“. This is a technical report that summarizes the geology and drilling activity that has recently occurred in Alabama.

The Energy Information Administration sends weekly, monthly and annual updates on a variety of energy related subjects and you can get them free by email. For natural gas you can get updates on market conditions, prices, storage levels and more.

Jim Jubak, financial columnist at MSN Money wrote an article titled… “Has Natural Gas Hit Bottom? Not Yet!“… He believes that there is a huge oversupply and that gas companies are producing at high levels to pay debt and maintain earnings.

The United States Department of Energy funded nine natural gas from shale projects. Most of them are intended to improve the management of hydraulic fracturing water at shale drilling sites or waste water treatment sites. More in an article at Oil & Gas Journal.

Horizontal wells are causing some people to be concerned about losing the gas beneath their property to a well that is being drilled a mile or more away. An article at CNBC.com tells why some people in Oklahome are concerned.

In a news release, Chesapeake Energy reports that they are the second largest producer in the Barnett Shale gas play. They expect to increase their Barnett Shale production from 655 mmcfe net per day to 725 mmcfe net per day by the end of 2009. They are operating with 18 rigs.

In a news release, Chesapeake Energy reports that they are the second largest leaseholder in the Fayetteville Shale gas play with 440,000 net acres. They expect to produce about 300 mmcfe net per day by the end of 2009 operating 18 rigs. Their estimated average yield per well is 2.4 bcfe.

Here is a video that shows a day on the job with Omar, a field engineer trainee at Schlumberger. He takes you out to a hydraulic fracturing job where they fracture a deep formation and inject 150,000 pounds of bauxite proppant into the well.

In 1969 an underground nuclear blast was tested as a well stimulation method at a Colorado site known as “Project Rulison”. Today drilling is not allowed near the site but some want access to the gas. Is it contaminated? More at Forbes.com.

Should horizontal wells change the methods for how royalties on natural gas production should be allocated? They can now drain gas directly from properties over a mile away. Article at CNBC.com.