Oil prices dipped below $115 a barrel but remained near a three-month high on Thursday Jan. 31, 2013 as optimism about global economic growth boosted demand expectations, while concern over supply continued to underpin strength in the market.

"I wouldn't read too much into it (the dip in oil prices)," said Carsten Fritsch, an oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, adding he expected oil prices to make further gains this week. Read more »

The movie “Promised Land” has led the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale Coalition to pay for advertising before the movie in 75 percent of the Pennsylvania’s movie theaters that are playing the film, Marcellus Shale Coalition spokesman Travis Windle said.

Windle said that the group bought advertising in Pennsylvania because the natural gas industry has a large presence in the state and about 243,000 jobs are linked to the industry. Read more »

Five years into the exploration for natural gas in the Fayetteville Shale, most Arkansans know about the hydraulic fracturing process and its links to environmental havoc, including poisoned wells and radioactive wastewater in various parts of the United States and increased earthquakes here in Arkansas. Now, a mushrooming side industry is beginning to attract national attention to farming communities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Read more »

The Fayetteville shale is one of the largest and highly concentrated natural gas resources in the US. The Fayetteville shale is located in Arkansas in the Arkoma Basin. The shale play has large amounts of undiscovered and technically recoverable hydrocarbon reserves. The shale is as deep as 1,000 to 7,000 feet with a thickness of 20 to 200 feet.

The shale looks to continue to grow into output and become a continued major player among the gas industry players.