The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division ruled May 2 that townships in New York state can ban hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling within municipal borders.

ATASCOSA COUNTY, Tex.—The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Center for Community and Business Research reported in March 2013 that Eagle Ford shale development added more than $61 billion in total economic impact during 2012.

WARD COUNTY, ND—The Montana-North Dakota chapter of the National Service, Transmission, Exploration, and Production Safety Network (MonDaks STEPS) held its first safety stand down on Feb. 14, 2013.

Oil production from 14 of the most active counties in the South Texas Eagle Ford shale reached 28 MMbbl in the last year. Gas production doubled from the previous year to 271 bcf, and for the same period, condensate tripled to 21 MMbbl, according to a March report from the Eagle Ford Task Force, which was established by the Texas Railroad Commission.

FAULKNER COUNTY, Ark.—In January, the USGS announced results from its year-long groundwater study in the central portion of Arkansas' Fayetteville shale.

ALBANY, NY—Marcellus Shale production reached 7 bcfd, surpassing the Haynesville to become the largest gas producing play in the US, according to a recent report from IHS.

CHENANGO COUNTY, NY—With no clear regulatory decision on the books, New York's local municipalities are enforcing constitutional rights to limit drilling activity within their borders.

Given the demanding schedules oil and gas professionals must maintain, it is easy to lose sight of the positive progress the industry continues to make—and what these collective efforts, aimed at safely producing clean-burning domestic natural gas, mean for the Northeastern US and the country as a whole.

The investment community continues to await the Ohio Department of Natural Resource's (DNR's) release of Utica shale well data from 2012.

The Bakken and Three Forks formations in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana hold an estimated mean of 7.38 billion bbl of undiscovered, technically recoverable crude oil, the US Geological Survey announced.

Southwestern Energy Co. plans to buy natural gas assets in Pennsylvania's Marcellus shale from Chesapeake Energy Corp. and its partners for $93 million.

Empire Oil and Gas NL, Claremont, WA, is nearing completion on its Red Gully natural gas and condensate separation plant in Western Australia.

TAG Oil Ltd., Vancouver, BC, has spudded an exploratory well that targets the Paleocene Waipawa black shale and Paleocene-Cretaceous Whangai source rock formations in New Zealand’s East Coast basin.