The American Petroleum Institute urged the federal government to designate a lead agency to ensure that 10 departments and agencies that are considering regulations connected with unconventional oil and gas production don’t create conflicting or duplicative rules.

Southwestern Energy Co., Houston, will invest $1.1 billion in the Fayetteville shale play in Arkansas in 2012, down from $1.3 billion in 2011.

Southwestern Energy Co., Houston, is drilling its third well in the Jurassic Lower Smackover Brown dense play in southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana, in which it has acquired 520,619 net acres.

The Carrizo Wilcox aquifer in South Texas appears to contain enough water to support oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing in the Eagle Ford shale, along with other anticipated uses, said Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter.

Development of the Utica shale will bring more than 65,000 jobs, contribute $4.86 billion to Ohio’s economy, and result in $3.3 billion of labor income, or an average of $50,225/job, by 2014, a study commissioned by the Ohio Shale Coalition concluded.

Southwestern Energy Co., Houston, said it has leased 238,057 net acres in the Denver-Julesburg basin in eastern Colorado where the company will begin testing a new unconventional oil play targeting carbonates and shales of middle and late Pennsylvanian to Permian age.

Encana Natural Gas Inc. has opened Louisiana’s first liquefied natural gas fueling station at Frierson along Interstate 49 about 15 miles south of Shreveport.

Enerplus Corp., Calgary, will spend $190 million in the Marcellus shale region in 2012, about 80% of which it will allocate to nonoperated interests in northeastern Pennsylvania.

A European Union technical committee handed Alberta producers a “small victory” by declining to declare fuels made from bitumen to be greater emitters of greenhouse gases than those from other types of crude oil.