The price of oil rose closer to $95 a barrel on Thursday January 17, 2013 as Islamic militants took hostages at a natural gas plant in Algeria and U.S. crude supplies fell unexpectedly.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for February delivery was up 42 cents to $94.66 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 96 cents to close at $94.24 a barrel on Wednesday. Read more »

While Cambria County has just a handful of Marcellus Shale natural gas wells, it will benefit from the host fees being paid by oil and gas companies to the state.

The Cambria County Redevelopment Authority is receiving a $150,000 grant from the state to meet housing needs as a result of the drilling activity.

Larry Custer, executive director of the redevelopment authority, used the frack water treatment facility under construction at a former Bethlehem Steel Corp. property as the basis for the application to Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. Read more »

The number of active rigs in the Barnett Shale rose by five this week to 35, apparently a rebound from last week, when the total was probably depressed by ice and snow that blew in during Christmas week.

That week, the count fell by eight to 30, according to RigData. Still, the Barnett rig count remains at its lowest level in years.

Nationally, the count inched down by one to 1,762. Oil rigs dropped by nine to 1,318, their lowest in nine months, BakerHughes said. Read more »

Oil prices retreated slightly on Monday December 7, 2013 as weak energy demand and concerns over more fiscal battles in Washington tempered news of growth in the US jobs market, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February shed 11 cents to $92.98 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for February dropped 30 cents to $111.01 in late London deals.

Official data on Friday showed that the US economy generated 155,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate held at 7.8 percent. Read more »