Keystone Energy Forum

A natural gas drilling company will permanently plug its three test wells in Wayne County after it finished evaluating the geology there.

"With natural gas, we discovered we had a new asset," John Arway, executive director of the state Fish and Boat Commission, said. "We had to look at it from a business perspective."

The Department of Environmental Protection has fined EXCO Resources $47,500 for operating unpermitted residual waste transfer stations in Lycoming and Sullivan counties.

Drilling into Marcellus shale deposits is banned in Pittsburgh, yet hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations in the countryside nearby have helped bring in jobs and boost demand for office space in Pennsylvania's second-biggest city.

The reserves in the Marcellus Shale tripled from 2009 to 2010, and one industry group predicts the Marcellus soon will be the new leader in domestic shale plays.

Beaver County officials and the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, a regional economic development organization, will offer their take on the operations and impact of the proposed Shell Chemical petrochemical facility.

Beaver County has better than a 50 percent shot of getting Shell's gas-fed petrochemical facility built, Gov. Tom Corbett said during a stop at the proposed site.

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) today for projects to improve the availability and affordability of housing in the Marcellus Shale region of the state.

Tioga County Development Corp celebrated Mansfield University's new Marcellus Institute, which was established in February to develop new academic programs focused on expanding the shale gas industry.

State officials are seeking a speedy review by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of their appeal to a decision last week overturning statewide zoning for shale gas drilling.